By Forrest Preece
While conducting his extensive on-site research for The Human Scale, author Lawrence Wright was walking through The Old City in the West Bank city of Hebron with a Palestinian peace activist named Issa Amro, and an artist who was taking photos. Amro was giving Wright a description of his nearby family home, which had been sealed shut by the Israelis. All of a sudden, an Israeli Defense Forces soldier yanked Amro by the neck, threw him to the ground, and then delivered a kick to his backside. If some of the soldiers’ brothers-in-arms hadn’t restrained him and the artist hadn’t been filming, Amro might have been killed. This real-life event reflects the ongoing drama of unexpected violence that permeates the novel.
The Human Scale is a masterful work by Wright, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and West Austin resident. It grabs the reader from the first page and doesn’t let up. The first character introduced in the book is Tony Malik, an Arab/Irish FBI agent who is injured in a bomb explosion. To see if he is still able to operate at a professional level, Malik is given what should have been a run-of-the-mill assignment in Hebron. As it happens, a female cousin’s wedding is set for that time frame, and he plans to attend it.
Soon after arriving in Hebron, Malik has a meeting with the Israeli police chief, who dies shortly afterwards. That looks suspicious. But then he allies with Yossi, an anti-Arab Israeli police officer investigating the murder. This relationship is the touchstone for the rest of the novel’s action. It’s an edge-of-the-seat tale, with many jarring, unexpected twists and turns that keep the suspense level high, and there is also a romantic relationship that crosses the cultural lines. All of the plot threads lead up to the Hamas attack in October 2023. Wright’s prose puts the reader in the harrowing middle of it all.
What sets this book apart from being just another mystery is that Wright weaves in many references to historical facts and legends that form the foundation of Jewish and Muslim belief systems. Wright has spent a good deal of time in the Middle East, and he has a deep understanding of both sides of the conflict. This novel is a primer for understanding the ongoing strife in the region. Two sentences from the book that ring in my mind: “The sole point of life in Hebron was to create misery for others. Yossi knew that, but he couldn’t break free of it.”
I know that “impossible to put down” is a cliché, but it’s true for this book. I highly recommend that you pick up a copy. It’s available online or at stores all over town.
