-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, 1956-1978
by Kai Bird
Pulitzer Prize-winner Kai Bird's vivid memoir of an American childhood spent in the midst of the Arab-Israeli conflict in Jerusalem and Saudia Arabia.
"Starred Review. Bird’s brushes with history...brings home the deeply messy humanity of the stories he binds together in this kaleidoscopic and captivating book." - Publishers Weekly
"A wise, intimate memoir ... If one person's story can shed light on a larger history, Bird's memoir carries many excellent lessons." - Kirkus Reviews
"This is a deeply felt and moving chronicle of one person’s up-close view of the human cost of this seemingly endless struggle." - Booklist
"I was entranced by this book from the first page to the last, and can recommend it with enthusiasm." - Sir Martin Gilbert, official biographer of Winston Churchill and author of Israel: A History and Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century
"…a meandering family scrapbook cobbled together with an earnest, condensed history of the region during those years. It illuminates a common experience among expatriates who crisscross the Middle East without being emotionally bonded to any side. They grow frustrated that the Arabs and Israelis—whom they come to know as two vital, charming, urbane, hospitable peoples—cannot see past the sense of their own victimhood to accept the other as a neighbor…Bird sprinkles his book with engaging miniature portraits of overlooked characters and events." - The New York Times, Neil MacFarquhar
"I was entranced by this book from the first page to the last, and can recommend it with enthusiasm." - Sir Martin Gilbert, official biographer of Winston Churchill and author of Israel: A History and Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century
This information about Crossing Mandelbaum Gate was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Kai Bird is the co-author with Martin J. Sherwin of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (2005), which also won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography. His other books include The Chairman: John J. McCloy, the Making of the American Establishment (1992) and The Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy & William Bundy, Brothers in Arms (1998). Bird's many honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the German Marshall Fund, and the Rockefeller Foundation. A contributing editor of The Nation, he lives in Kathmandu, Nepal, with his wife and son.
If you liked Crossing Mandelbaum Gate, try these:
by Yume Kitasei
Published 2026
From the acclaimed author of The Stardust Grail comes the epic tale of two sisters who sail across oceans to find their missing third sister―and Earth's environmental salvation.
by Jonathan Miles
Published 2026
From acclaimed author Jonathan Miles ("a writer so virtuosic that readers will feel themselves becoming better, more observant people from reading him"—Los Angeles Times) comes a blackly comic literary gem in which a broken man confronts a broken world on an uninhabited Pacific island.
by Louise Erdrich
Published 2025
In this stunning novel, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award–winning author Louise Erdrich tells a story of love, natural forces, spiritual yearnings, and the tragic impact of uncontrollable circumstances on ordinary people's lives.
L.A. Women by Ella Berman
Two ambitious writers in 1960s LA face betrayal when one writes a novel based on the other's life.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
