City of a Thousand Gates is a political fiction based on the lives of Israelis and Palestinians. It revolves around people on both sides of the wall, where each one of them is navigating their lives amid the conflict.

We get the first glimpse of the harrowing everyday life of people when Hamid, a resident of the Palestinian city of Bethlehem takes the wrong bus. He has been working inside Israel without a valid permit for almost a month, but this day he takes the wrong bus that’ll take him to Central Station in Tel Aviv where his permit will be checked before he can exit the city to go to his home in Bethlehem. He somehow makes it out but that’s just a story of one day.

We come across multiple such stories. A journalist who strives to cover a story of a Palestinian boy beaten into a coma by a group of revenge-seeking Israeli teenagers. A nineteen-year-old Jewish soldier who is guarding the checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. A Palestinian teenager questioning her heroism. And so on and so forth.

How did it make me feel?

What I liked the most about City of a Thousand Gates, is that it doesn’t have a beginning or an end. Even though it is fiction, it almost feels like author Sacks picked a stretch of lives from these real-life characters, and presented them as they are. I am ashamed to say that I didn’t know as many details of the Israel-Palestine conflict, except for what and how things are shown in media. But City of a Thousand Gates opened my eyes to so much that is going on. It is absolutely heart-wrenching what is happening in this part of the world. I believe not many people know about the intricacies of human lives living in such conflict. And the notable thing is, this book gives you a peek into the lives on both sides of the conflict. I really believe City of a Thousand Gates is a must-read.

What I didn’t like is that some of the interactions between the characters were just bizarre. I have no other way to explain it when a character describes her sex life in detail to a stranger she just met. The entire narrative around sex, be it in the form of a flashback or a memory or anyway else, just feels completely out of place. Also, it doesn’t do anything significant to describe the relationship between the characters. This was my only problem with the book.

Definitely give this book a try. Get your own copy on Amazon. If you use my link to buy, I may get a small commission at NO additional cost to you! It will help me keep my blog running! 🙂 Thank you for your support!