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Jerusalem: Books Part of the Places of a Lifetime series from Traveler magazine

Great reading that provides a sense of the city, from the Traveler online Ultimate Travel Library.

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A Beggar in Jerusalem, by Elie Wiesel

Nobel Peace Prize-winning author describes the spiritual journey of a Holocaust survivor forced to confront the ghosts of his past in post-1967 Jerusalem.

Dying for Jerusalem: The Past, Present and Future of the Holiest City, by Walter Laquer (2006)

Renowned historian and journalist revisits the city he lived in half a century ago.

The Innocents Abroad, by Mark Twain (1869)

In his inimitable style, Twain recounts his journey to Europe and the Holy Land.

The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City, by Dore Gold (2007)

Former Israeli ambassador to the UN provides historical background for his argument against fundamentalist Islam.

Murder in Jerusalem: A Michael Ohayon Mystery, by Batya Gur (2006)

The human complexities of the city and contemporary Israel through the eyes of Jerusalemite serial detective Michael Ohayon.

O Jerusalem, by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre (1988)

Slightly dated but riveting account of the events leading to the establishment of Israel and the division of Jerusalem in 1948.

Poems of Jerusalem and Love Poems, by Yehuda Amichai (1992)

“I remember that the city was divided/Not only between me and you/When we lived there together.” Translated work of one of Israel’s leading poets.

Shira, by Shmuel Yosef Agnon(1971)

Israeli Nobel prize laureate’s story of an adulterous relationship between an educated German immigrant and a Jerusalem-born nurse in 1930s Jerusalem.

A Woman in Jerusalem, by A. B. Yehoshua (2006)

A woman killed in a suicide bombing at a Jerusalem market raises questions of morality, personal identity, and nationality in a traumatized city.

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