Until the Walls Come Down
A contemporary novel
After a terrorist attack claimed the lives of her parents, Tammar receives devastating news: her childhood home in Jaffa is slated for demolition. Pregnant and grieving, she throws herself into a legal battle to save the house—only to discover it once belonged to her Palestinian husband’s family, who fled during the war of 1947.
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With the council hell-bent on demolishing the house for a new development, Tammar needs all the help she can get. She must reunite her estranged brothers with her husband’s family—each claiming the house as their heritage. As neighbours join their fight against displacement, Tammar learns that in her conflict-scarred homeland, every stone holds multiple histories.
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Exploring questions of ownership and belonging, Until the Walls Come Down is a story about the tangled roots of family and place, and the power of unity.
Reviewers say...
From Kirkus: "An affecting, thoughtful family drama crackling with energy. Podjarny’s involving, layered tale tackles personal, racial, and political themes. Still, it’s never overcomplicated, nor is there a drop of saccharine sentimentality here, only authentic emotion conveyed by a cast of fully developed characters. The result is a deeply affecting tale that will haunt one long after it’s read."
From Feathered Quill: Until the Walls Come Down is a touching and deeply emotional novel... Throughout the narrative, readers are drawn into a deeply inspiring environment of two people holding firmly on to each other even when the world around them feels like it’s falling apart. Podjarny's writing style is soft and poetic, filled with quiet details that bring the world to life... she shows us how grief can hurt deeply but also open the door to healing, how family can break but still find its way back together, and how even in a country full of conflict and division, peace can begin with a quiet conversation, a shared memory, or a single act of kindness.
From Readers' Favorite: "... a deeply layered literary novel set in modern-day Israel, where grief, identity, and history collide. Podjarny’s prose is both intimate and sweeping, capturing the emotional complexity of a land where every stone bears witness to competing claims and hard-won peace. Author Gal Podjarny has written a story with much-needed empathy for our time, placing conflict back in a context we can relate to rather than in the hands of world powers arguing over human lives. What results is a beautifully written exploration of heritage, grief, and contested identity that has a lot of complexity; it’s a story with no clear right or wrong answers, just like life.
