“A land where allegiances shifted like sand patterns in the wind” summarizes F. Michele Ramsey’s beautifully rendered novel about Israel’s post-WWII Occupied Territory. Her book’s 1980-1995 timeline underscores both the complex natures and seemingly never-ending enmities of the region.

The plot revolves around several families: Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and shades between. French-Egyptian lapsed Christian Farah tumbles into the story’s multi-region turmoil after her fiancé jilts her in Paris. She’s then swept into a romance with Gus, a wealthy Muslim man, and, later, gains a deeper awareness of the region’s dark currents when she seeks a new life in the Middle East. Also featured are lifelong friends, Palestinian Ibrahim and Jewish anti-Zionist Moshe, who work in vain to ease rising territorial tensions.

Part romance and part page-turning thriller, The Double-Edged Sword lays out familial microcosms that reflect the roots and issues of this baffling region. Ramsey deftly weaves complexities and bizarre socio-political alliances (Hezbollah and Amal) and enmities (Hamas vs. the PLO) into easily understandable narrative. Her characters are layered, relatable, and flawed (the dashing Gus comes with the full array of the sexism of his time and culture). She pits them into terrifying situations, particularly during horrific border crossings into Palestinian refugee camps and the Occupied Territory.

Ramsey vividly takes readers back to life 40 years ago — telegrams, expensive long-distance calls, cassette tapes — and to the architecture, art, food, and culture of distant places. Her book is stuffed with rich metaphors (men in a club were “puffed up like Arabian camels”; of a frayed cloth, Ramsey writes: “He unfolded it as if it were an ancient parchment that he was afraid to tear”).

Some scenes serve only to advance the plot, but this is a quibble. Rife with twists, betrayals, mysteries, and perils — especially in its final heart-stopping pages—The Double-Edged Sword will keep readers immersed throughout.

Also available as an ebook.