This Storied Land

Three women...two traditions...one ancient land--

In the Middle East, in 1920, a new era beckoned. Gone was the old, corrupted Ottoman rule, succeeded now by a British authority promising peace, prosperity and order-with the pledge of a better life in Palestine for its Arab inhabitants, plus a homeland there for the Jews.

But the next twenty-eight years beheld rapidly worsening strife, with ill feeling all around. The bitterest of triangles provoked widening and fearsome bloodshed.

This is the story of ordinary people trying to do what's right in extraordinary times, pitting their best against the fierce turmoil of their days: Rivka, a Jewish farmer-Avram, her militant husband-Leila, her confidante, an Arab laundress-Nellie, her friend, a nurse-Morris, Nellie's husband, a British doctor-and all of their children, born into the seething cauldron that was reshaped in 1948 with the State of Israel's debut.