Borne Back (ePub)

Expat architect Danny Holzman leaves his American wife and son and travels to his native Israel to see his beloved grandmother who is close to death, only to arrive in time for her funeral. While grieving and comforting his aging divorced mother, happy and painful memories resurface. He feels increasingly disoriented as he navigates his past and present in a homeland far different from the one he left in his early twenties, two decades ago.

Although planning to stay only for the customary seven days of mourning and reminisce with his mother over memorabilia and family history, his return trip is delayed when the present unexpectedly intrudes: battles are raging just an hour away, terrorist attacks are threatening the neighborhood, and an encounter with his Israeli ex-wife feels more like an ambush than a chance meeting.

Against his better judgment, Danny grows close to an attractive neighbor and her young children and is unwittingly drawn into a web of intrigue involving her and her missing husband. Caught up in their conflicting stories, Danny struggles to uncover the truth about their lives while grappling with questions about his own. Feeling at times like a stranger in both his homeland and his adopted land and not fully at home in either, he realizes he must finally decide between building a new life in Israel or recommitting to the life he has made in America.