Gather the Olives

Gather the Olives is a dangerous book. That’s because it is about peace in a timewhen peace in the Holy Land is a faraway, even radical notion. It is about hopeand food and community and the way there can be solidarity in sharing a meal.Hence the danger: this book might remind its brave readers of how peace isnourished and how hope can’t be extinguished.

Over the years, Bret Lott—the bestselling authorof more than a dozen books, including the novel Jewel (an Oprah’s BookClub selection)—has lived and taught in Jerusalem, affording him theopportunity to travel throughout Israel and the surrounding area. Now, in Gatherthe Olives, this gifted storyteller has brought together a collection ofintimate portraits of the people, the food, and the hope for peace to be foundin a region ravaged by war and conflict.

Through meditations on such varied matters as anolive oil cooperative run by Israeli and Palestinian women, a non-kosherbutcher shop in the middle of upscale—and very kosher—German Colony, thenighttime harvesting of olives by Bedouins in downtown Jerusalem, a traditionalShabbat dinner at an ancient home within the walls of the Old City, a simpleyet beautiful plate of fruit in an office in Ramallah, Bret Lott considers howfood and the people with whom we share it can bring together hearts and soulsin a lasting, meaningful, and peaceful way.