Overview

In the midst of the Second Intifada, two acts of extreme violence lead to an act of extraordinary humanity. A suicide bomb was detonated outside a nightclub in Tel Aviv, killing twenty-two people, mostly young Israelis. The next day, in an apparently retributive act of violence, an Israeli settler shot Palestinian pharmacist, Mazan Al-Joulani in the neck, rendering him brain-dead. From the ashes of these deadly events rose an incredible act of generosity when the family of Al-Joulani agreed to donate his heart to a dying Israeli. The son of pioneering cardiologists, Rowan Somerville travelled to the Levant to speak with survivors and their families, interviewing the surgeon who performed the transplant, and meeting the family of the suicide bomber Saeed Hotari. In this close look at humanity at work, Somerville’s writing is at once personal and objective, an outsider’s unbiased view of events steeped in, but overcoming, prejudice. The close observations and fastpaced narrative style have the immediacy of a contemporary thriller.

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9781843517054

Table of Contents

Reviews

Rowan Somerville has written an amazing book. Beat is a riveting, intelligent and scrupulously honest journey through the torment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It runs the gamut of human behaviour, from blood-curdling barbarity to extraordinary generosity; a tour-de-force -- Laura Marlowe * Irish Times * 'Rowan Somerville has written an amazing book. Beat is a riveting, intelligent and scrupulously honest journey through the torment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It runs the gamut of human behaviour, from blood-curdling barbarity to extraordinary generosity; a tour de force.' - Lara Marlowe, The Irish Times 'It's [Somerville's] baggage that makes him such an insightful guide ... he can share their story in a way that headlines never could.' - GQ Magazine 'One of the most-important releases of 2017, in any genre.' - Hilary A. White, Sunday Independent 'One of the best books on the Middle East I've ever read.' - Deasuin MacBraoin, The Examiner

"‘Rowan Somerville has written an amazing book. Beat is a riveting, intelligent and scrupulously honest journey through the torment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It runs the gamut of human behaviour, from blood-curdling barbarity to extraordinary generosity; a tour de force.’ – Lara Marlowe, The Irish Times 'It's [Somerville's] ""baggage"" that makes him such an insightful guide ... he can share their story in a way that headlines never could.' – GQ Magazine 'One of the most-important releases of 2017, in any genre.' – Hilary A. White, Sunday Independent 'One of the best books on the Middle East I've ever read.’ – Deasúin MacBraoin, The Examiner Rowan Somerville has written an amazing book. Beat is a riveting, intelligent and scrupulously honest journey through the torment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It runs the gamut of human behaviour, from blood-curdling barbarity to extraordinary generosity; a tour-de-force -- Laura Marlowe * Irish Times *"

Author Information

Rowan Somerville was born in London in 1966 and studied Literature at the University of Edinburgh. He has worked in film, television and radio. He is the author of two novels, The End of Sleep, shortlisted for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and The Shape of Her (2010).

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