Dinner at the Center of the Earth (Vintage International) - Softcover

A Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year

"[A] bold, compassionate, genre-hopping novel." --The New York Times Book Review

"Superb: a work of psychological precision and moral force, with an immediacy that captures both timeless human truth and the perplexities of the present day." --Colson Whitehead

"[A] brutal, beautiful masterpiece." --NPR

"Exhilarating." --Los Angeles Times

"Haunting." --Esquire

"A subtle, nuanced, fierce novel." --Julian Barnes, The Guardian

"One of more consistently brilliant, bold, and funny writers." --Dave Eggers

"Dinner at the Center of the Earth blends elements of spy thriller and love story, magical realism, and an all-too-real history of one of the world's most intractable problems: peace between Israel and its neighbors." --The Boston Globe

"It's difficult to describe Englander's novel without giving something away. There's a delicious puzzle that becomes evident as it unfolds. . . . As weighty and political as Dinner at the Center of the Earth seems, it's also a plot-driven page-turner. . . . We must now compare Englander to Graham Greene as well as Philip Roth. And he comes off well in the comparison." --Houston Chronicle

"Dinner at the Center of the Earth illuminates the zealot's blindness, the patriot's struggle for clarity, and the enduring dream of a coming together." --O, The Oprah Magazine

"Englander writes the stories I am always hoping for." --Geraldine Brooks

"Moving. . . . A twisty tale of spycraft and false allegiances unfolds, but what stands out is Mr. Englander's insistence on finding romance amid the violence and deception. . . . The ageless struggle between Jews and Arabs comes to resemble a desperate lover's embrace." --The Wall Street Journal

"A literary spy thriller. . . . Englander is as wise and funny and original and moving as ever." --Financial Times

"An absolute joy to read. . . . A dark, profound meditation on the state of Israel and also a gripping thriller, full of twists and moral ambiguity." --The Jewish Chronicle

"A wistful fantasy of an impossible Israeli-Palestinian romance." --San Francisco Chronicle

"One of the best we have." --Column McCann

"A searing message about the difficulty of just action and human connection amid the pingpong match of retaliation in the Middle East." --Newsday

"[A] complicated but masterful exploration of the many contradictions of the modern State of Israel." --Haaretz

"A riveting tale." --Austin Chronicle

"Smart and intriguing." --Library Journal

"Striking. . . . A thought-provoking political thriller with some romance and cheeky humor thrown in for good measure." --BuzzFeed

"Clever, fragmented, pithy. . . . Englander is a wise observer with an empathetic heart." --Publishers Weekly

"Englander has produced a masterpiece of literary imagination that seems to mirror his own evolution." --The Jerusalem Post

The new novel from the Pulitzer-nominated, bestselling author of For the Relief of Unbearable Urges—a political thriller set against the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In the Negev desert, a nameless prisoner languishes in a secret cell, his only companion the guard who has watched over him for a dozen years. Meanwhile, the prisoner’s arch nemesis—The General, Israel’s most controversial leader—lies dying in a hospital bed. From Israel and Gaza to Paris, Italy, and America, Englander provides a kaleidoscopic view of the prisoner’s unlikely journey to his cell. Dinner at the Center of the Earth is a tour de force—a powerful, wryly funny, intensely suspenseful portrait of a nation riven by insoluble conflict, and the man who improbably lands at the center of it all.