In the Lebanese village of Bhamdoun in 1931, Joseph Friedmann is born to a 15-year-old Jewish girl hastily married off to a man thirty years her senior. His parents divorce, and at the age of eight, Joseph is sent to be raised in a Catholic convent. There he experiences anti-Semitism, betrayal, and a deep trauma he cannot bring himself to name. He falls in love with Isabella, a nun-in-training, but this too turns to heartbreak.

Joseph sets out on foot toward Palestine, where he takes part in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. He has finally found a home. But his new country needs Joseph’s unique set of skills, and he returns to Lebanon as an Israeli spy. Over time, the tools of his trade — daring, violence, deceit, and suppression of self — exact an ever-increasing toll. After twenty years undercover, he completes one final, decisive operation. Now Joseph faces a choice: escape to safety in Israel, or attempt to lay claim to his future by confronting the past — the mother who forsook him; the abbess who abused him; the lover who deserted him.

THE WOLF SHALL DWELL WITH THE LAMB is a literary thriller. This work contextualizes the geopolitical, religious, social and historical realities of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the roots of the current violence in the Middle East. The world needs this novel precisely at this time. The book reminds us of the historical imperatives leading to the founding of the State of Israel, while acknowledging the pain and longing experienced by its Arab citizens and neighbors.