Set in contemporary Israel this powerful novel is narrated in real time by many voices: Sixteen-year-old Thomas from Berlin seeking answers to questions about his grandfather a Nazi officer in World War II. Vera from Odessa reclaiming her Jewish heritage. Baruch Ben Tov a Holocaust survivor. Sameh Laham illegally employed at a diner. His boss. Sameh s friend Omar. A Palestinian doctor in an Israeli hospital. A mother. A soldier. A newscaster . . . Minute by minute hour by hour these lives and many others unfold--and then intersect in one violent moment on a highway outside Jerusalem. Each is drastically and irrevocably changed. What do secrets hopes dreams and future plans mean after such a catastrophe? Can what was destroyed be made whole again?