"You sit at dinner with charming people in a dining room like any other. Yet you know that your hostess has lost a son and that her sister lost children in the 1973 war. A fact of Jewish life is that, 'You cannot take your right to live for granted'."
In the mid-1970s, Saul Bellow visited Israel and To Jerusalem and Back is his account of his time there. Immersing himself in its landscape and culture, he records the opinions, passions and dreams of Israelis of varying viewpoints - from Prime Minister Rabin, novelist Amos Oz and the editor of an Arab-language newspaper to a kibbutznik escaped from the Warsaw ghetto and the barber at Bellow's hotel. Through meditations steeped in history and literature he adds his own reflections on being Jewish in the twentieth century. Bellow's exploration of a beautiful and troubled city is a powerful testament to the unique spirit and challenges of Israel, its history and its future.