If you have read Courage To Love, please leave your thoughts as a reader of the novel, in a comment. These are the reviews to date:
Pages are full of passion, heart-wrenching sadness, and building tension of adolescent love… absolutely compelling… and beautiful. Jay W. Friedman, Public health consumer advocate, 2009 Author of The Year, American Journal of Public Health.
I have been looking for a human scale story about the Middle East: but one that will both entertain and provoke. In short I believe Courage to Love is it. Not since Elie Wiesel, the Nobel prize-winning writer, has an author distilled these conflicts into such human terms. Put another way, while the story touches on significant issues, it is really a tale of two young people and their struggle to be allowed to love each other. Bill Birrell, Filmmaker
Courage to Love is a well-written, fast-paced story outlining cultural and religious differences. It involves several different characters and is written in a Da Vinci Code like style from chapter to chapter. The attention and respect paid to all sides of the fight—the religion, customs and language—makes for a compelling insiders look into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There is no bias for one religion, province, or people over another; but more of a story of how even in the most extreme cases of hatred, peace and love can be found. It’s a very visual story that lends itself to multimedia—the printed page, film, and T.V.—as its ripe content makes it a story of interest to everyone. K. Cannary, reviewer and editor.
In Courage to Love, the story’s two main characters are programmed in the name of their opposite causes. What impresses me the most is that the power of love unites them. Through the two young teenagers, the older generation is transformed as well to opt for life over death and love over hate. What a powerful text for young readers worldwide. Former president of a Middle Eastern university.
The main focus in all three major religions (Jewish, Christian & Muslim) is peace and love. Going back in time, we as humans have always ruined this notion with our greed and hate. Josh and Haja’s story truly shows how love can triumph over all evils. The story is so fair to all sides, it is an inspiration. Adib Nono, Orthodox Catholic and Islam scholar
In Courage to Love, the story’s two main characters are programmed in the name of their opposite causes. What impresses me the most is that the power of love unites them. Through the two young teenagers, the older generation is transformed as well to opt for life over death and love over hate. What a powerful text for young readers worldwide. Former president of a Middle Eastern university.
Courage to Love is a valuable and powerful story … I hope it attracts a wide audience. Warren J.R., Order Franciscan Minor.
This is a Romeo and Juliet story set in the middle east, with an international cast. It’s about the different cultures and belief systems, but more about their similarities. It’s a book about the possibility of peace and love, in this modern day; a compelling story with an edge-of-your-seat finish. Great heart, and a good read–Rupert Nadeau, Executive Assistant, Warner Brothers
A new exploration of the middle-eastern condition that takes place in a hospital and in two families of different backgrounds: it is the thermometer for the growing madness of the present Jewish-Palestinian conflict, but the perspective is not political, but human. Courage and freedom, fight and rights, alliances and love, are all protagonists of a sweet story that succeeds in giving hope and a message of peace.
The evolution of the Jewish-Palestinian conflict passes through a Hospital, much differently than from the journalistic articles which we are accustomed to (in which only negative news, such as attacks, slaughters, violence of every type are mentioned). The idea of the writer is to show to the reader how to go beyond what we hear in the news and see that above all we belong to the same race and that our feelings are universal. He succeeds in his attempt using old-fashioned single words: love, honesty and truth. They emerge strong, grabbing the reader’s attention, so that the reader is forced to follow with rapture this beautifully written story of a love.
A story without pretense, linear, with beautiful characters that you will fall in love with.–Laura Miller, Executive, 46
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July 10, 2010 at 10:06 am
Courage To Love is the story of a young Israeli man and a young Arab woman, about whom we deeply care, who are brought together by the horror of war. They allow love to enter their lives despite political and religious differences and despite years of programming to fear, hate, mistrust and shun each other love blossoms in the desert amidst impossible odds. Equally presenting all sides of the issues in this fast paced, well written and well researched novel, Robert Ellis presents us with the powerful possibilities and the promising potential of love even under the most difficult of circumstances–Shelly Kurtz on July 12th 2010.
October 25, 2010 at 6:57 pm
By James Cass Rogers (Los Angeles, CA) – See all my reviews
This review is from: Courage to Love (Perfect Paperback)
Good writing, for me, makes the strange familiar and the familiar strange. Robert Ellis has managed to do both in his bold, courageous novel, COURAGE TO LOVE. Setting a star crossed romance in the turmoil and terror of present day Israel, the author spins a taut, suspenseful tale that builds to an unexpected and illuminating climax. I was moved and informed by this book. It gives one hope. And in today’s world, we need more of such nourishment.
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A beautifully written story of a love and hope, August 6, 2010
By Laura S Miller – See all my reviews
This review is from: Courage to Love (Perfect Paperback)
A new exploration of the middle-eastern condition that takes place in a hospital and in two families of different backgrounds: it is the thermometer for the growing madness of the present Jewish-Palestinian conflict, but the perspective is not political, but human. Courage and freedom, fight and rights, alliances and love, are all protagonists of a sweet story that succeeds in giving hope and a message of peace.
The evolution of the Jewish-Palestinian conflict passes through a Hospital, much differently than from the journalistic articles which we are accustomed to (in which only negative news, such as attacks, slaughters, violence of every type are mentioned). The idea of the writer is to show to the reader how to go beyond what we hear in the news and see that above all we belong to the same race and that our feelings are universal. He succeeds in his attempt using old-fashioned single words: love, honesty and truth. They emerge strong, but not overbearing, grabbing the reader’s attention, so that the reader is forced to follow with rapture this beautifully written story of a love.
A story without pretense, linear, with beautiful characters that you will fall in love with.
Dramatic and compelling, August 5, 2010
By Rupert Nadeau – See all my reviews
This review is from: Courage to Love (Audible Audio Edition)
This is a very dramatic and compelling reading of Courage to Love. You’re at once transported to the middle east with an international cast of characters, for this modern day Romeo and Juliet love story. The reader does a fine job with the varied emotions of the book. It has a thrilling edge-of-your-seat final chapter. Very engaging.
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Comment
Courage to Love was written to make enemies friends. I am not idiotic enough to believe one love story can solve world problems – except for the fact that it solved this author’s problems with the world. The sleeping knowledge in this book needs to be told to each new generation to free them to make up their own minds about life. As I listened to the climax of the recording of the Courage to Love audio book, I listened to a frightened Arab teenager, her stern iman father, a stalwart American boy and his South Carolina Jewish parents, a Scottish Franciscan friar, an Egyptian doctor, both a Jordanian and an Irish nurse, and a Palestinian army general. I heard a symphony – composed of the truths of all the people around the world who had contributed to this book. Truth after truth. No arguments. No discords. Only truths that rang as bells. Throughout my life, my soul has seemed to record and mourn the numbers of soldiers and innocents who were killed in the wars of my time, from the Italian bombardment of Ethiopia and Spain in 1935-36, through the invasions of China, Czechoslovakia, WWII and the Holocaust, Hiroshima, Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East, Afghanistan and Iraq.
To stop this slaughter, my soul extends to the world this desert rose. The author