-
Access Our
Best Book Club
Books of 2025!
Summary | Excerpt | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
Book Reviewed by:From master storyteller Stewart O'Nan, a timely moral thriller of the Jewish underground resistance in Jerusalem after the Second World War
In 1945, with no homes to return to, Jewish refugees by the tens of thousands set out for Palestine. Those who made it were hunted as illegals by the British mandatory authorities there and relied on the underground to shelter them; taking fake names, they blended with the population, joining the wildly different factions fighting for the independence of Israel.
City of Secrets follows one survivor, Brand, as he tries to regain himself after losing everyone he's ever loved. Now driving a taxi provided - like his new identity - by the underground, he navigates the twisting streets of Jerusalem as well as the overlapping, sometimes deadly loyalties of the resistance. Alone, haunted by memories, he tries to become again the man he was before the war—honest, strong, capable of moral choice. He falls in love with Eva, a fellow survivor and member of his cell, reclaims his faith, and commits himself to the revolution, accepting secret missions that grow more and more dangerous even as he begins to suspect he's being used by their cell's dashing leader, Asher. By the time Brand understands the truth, it's too late, and the tragedy that ensues changes history.
A noirish, deeply felt novel of intrigue and identity written in O'Nan's trademark lucent style, City of Secrets asks how both despair and faith can lead us astray, and what happens when, with the noblest intentions, we join movements beyond our control.
In his introductory letter to the reader, O’Nan quotes David Lynch: “It’s people in trouble, at night, with a little bit of wind and the right kind of music.” It’s an old story - yes - but in City of Secrets, it has been made new. It is a novel to be read quickly the first time because it is difficult to put down. Afterward, it becomes a novel to read again and again because each time, the labyrinth of Jerusalem streets will offer up a new gem...continued
Full Review
(940 words)
This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access,
become a member today.
(Reviewed by Naomi Benaron).
Stewart O'Nan's City of Secrets begins in Mandatory Palestine when there were three main organizations in the Jewish resistance: the Haganah, Irgun, and Lohamei Herut Israel, commonly known as the Stern Gang. The first organization was the Haganah, which means "defense" in Hebrew. It began in 1920 in response to Arab violence against the yishuv, the body of Jewish residents in the territory of Palestine. Zionist immigration to Palestine had been increasing since the Balfour Declaration, a "declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations" was signed in the UK in 1917. For the most part, Arabs and Jews coexisted in relative peace, but the large waves of Jewish immigrants alarmed a portion of the Arab population, resulting in the Arab ...
This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. Join today for full access.
If you liked City of Secrets, try these:
by Moriel Rothman-Zecher
Published 2019
In this lyrical and searing debut novel written by a rising literary star and MacDowell Fellow, a young man is preparing to serve in the Israeli army while also trying to reconcile his close relationship to two Palestinian siblings with his deeply ingrained loyalties to family and country.
by Anthony Doerr
Published 2017
A stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Winner of the 2014 BookBrowse Award for Fiction.
No pleasure is worth giving up for the sake of two more years in a geriatric home.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Alan Furst, New York Times bestselling author of Mission to Paris
Stewart O'Nan's City of Secrets will keep you up all night reading – what a beautifully crafted novel.
