This 600 page novel is set in the year 1946 and the main plot is about the Emigration of around 300 Jewish children from British run cramped barbed wire surrounded refugee camps in Cyprus to then Palestine in a ship called Exodus (From Wikipedia: In Bible Exodus is the story of the enslavement of the Israelites in ancient Egypt, their liberation through the hand of their deity and their wanderings in the wilderness up to the borders of Canaan)
This effort is orchestrated by the protagonist Ari Ben-Canaan with daring schemes to escape certain death from all corners
But the novel gets much deeper and beautifully narrates the bravery and struggle of Jews in the formation of modern state of Israel which they call “Promised Land”. The author Leon Uris takes the reader through a wonderful journey involving extensive flashbacks from the past which finally leads to the birth of a nation called Israel
Though a fiction, the author interweaves the story with lot of historical incidents which has come out of an extensive research.
The novel also talks about the early migration of Jews from Russia where they lost everything and had to literally walk to Palestine. These were the forefathers of formation of new Israel.
It details the atrocities caused on Jews during Holocaust, where thousands of Jews in Poland and Germany were starved or frozen to death in Ghetto camps. It talks about the “Final Solution” as Germans wanted a quick finish to the Jewish “Problem” through mass exterminations.
It talks in gruesome detail about the gas chambers. There were clean-up squads of inmates from Auschwitz. They emptied the gas chambers and removed the corpses to the crematoriums. Gold teeth were pulled and rings taken before the burnings. These would be melted down and sent to Berlin. Often a well-shaped skull would be taken for sale to the German guards as paperweights
Basically after Holocaust the Jews felt there was no place in the world they could call Home other than Israel. Jews from across the world migrated to the Promised Land. The country was painstakingly built inch by inch, Kibbutz by Kibbutz (A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture).
Leon Uris also talks around the events which led to the declaration of independence for Israel by United Nations. They needed 2/3rd of support from United Nation countries, and they only had support of handful of countries to start with. What happened later is nothing short of a miracle. The author beautifully narrates this story. As Leon Uris puts it “After two thousand years, the State of Israel was reborn”. The Author takes us through the complete journey of Israel from practically nothing to one of the most of prominent countries in the world right in front of our eyes
But everything was not great for Israel after independence. None of the Arab nations (even till date) accepted Israel as an independent nation (except Egypt which did after the six day war)
Israel is less than 0.17% of the land mass of the Middle East which means it’s covered by more than 99% of nations which yearn for her destruction. At the time of independence, Israel’s population was less than a million and they were surrounded by 50 Million Arabs who vied for her blood. As author puts it “The Jews are outnumbered in soldiers forty to one, in population a hundred to one, in equipment a thousand to one, and in area five thousand to one”
Of course the Author is little partisan towards Israel/Jews, some sections would seem written very one-sided and some experts argue there are entirely not accurate, but this should not stop you from really enjoying the writing
Fortunately the Author does not take a pessimistic route and only talks gloom. The book is filled with the Perseverance, Hope, Courage, Hard work of the Jews and Miracle called Israel
The Characterization happens very nicely and you will feel very intimate with the characters
After reading the novel, you will be left with a plethora of emotions which range from anger, disgust, fear and sadness to joy, appreciation, satisfaction, encouragement and knowledge. The thoughts will linger in your mind for long time, days if not weeks. At places you will be shocked to bones and feel like someone punched you in the stomach and will make you wonder can humans be so cruel, can history to be so bad to one community/country. If you are like me, you will start searching in Google to check if the events in holocaust really happened and unfortunately they did. But Optimism takes over and you will be mesmerized by the turn of events and how Israel stands today as one of the most advanced countries in Technology, Security or Agriculture
As in Author’s words
Exodus is the story of the greatest miracle of our times, an event unparalleled in the history of mankind: the rebirth of a nation which had been dispersed 2,000 years before. It tells the story of the Jews coming back after centuries of abuse, indignities, torture, and murder to carve an oasis in the sand with guts and with blood....Exodus is about fighting people, people who do not apologize either for being born Jews or the right to live in human dignity
Hats off to Leon Uris for telling this story to the whole world and make everyone look at Israel with much more respect and look at its history in a new perspective. The writing is very simple and engrossing and it’s worth every minute of reading
Epilogue
About Exodus
Leon Uris (August 3, 1924 – June 21, 2003), spent a number of years doing research for Exodus, traveling 12,000 miles within Israel and interviewing 1,200 people. He nearly read 300 books
Exodus was translated to more than 25 languages
His books have been sold more than 150 million copies
- Manjunath
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