This Green Land

by John Fullerton and John Fullerton

Reem is twenty, bright and strikingly attractive. Nick is twenty-seven and, on his first posting abroad to a beautiful country torn apart by war, he is determined to make the world a better place. And... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0330419765
• ISBN13: 9780330419765
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Pan Publishing
• Length: 406 Pages

Customer Reviews

The training of a suicide bomber in the Middle East

This is a very unusual story, and one that is of special interest to all of us who find ourselves shocked and mystified by the mentality of suicide bombers. The events of 11 Sept. 2001, the London Underground bombings in July 2005, and the almost daily suicide bombings in Iraq and Israel makes it important that we try to understand what on earth is going on here. The story in "This Green Land" (or "Give Me Death" as the hardcover version was called) takes place during the civil war in Lebanon, around 1985 (no exact date is mentioned). There are two main characters: Reem is an attractive young woman from the southernmost part of Lebanon (which became part of Israel) who has lost her home and her entire family. Nick is an idealistic young British man who is working for the United Nations in Lebanon. Reem and Nick meet in Beirut. For Nick it's love at first sight. For Reem it's something quite different - she's being trained to be a suicide bomber, and she needs Nick in order to be able to gain access to her target. The story proceeds slowly but surely to an incredible climax. There are many unexpected turns, and many things happen that make us reconsider our prejudices. John Fullerton's writing style is sure, and he does a very good job of making us understand what was happening in Lebanon at this time, with all of the rival factions and militias, and the terrible breakdown of the functioning of society. We also learn to understand the human emotions involved, and understand why Reem has made her terrible choice. In fact, Mr. Fullerton is able to make us feel that we are almost involved personally and experiencing what is happening, not just spectators reading a book. He does this through a combination of his up-close writing style and the wealth of nitty-gritty details that are provided. (He worked in Beirut as a journalist during the civil war so he has personal experience with what conditions were like.) Highly recommended. The lack of the fifth star is mostly due to my feelings that the secondary characters are not as believable as they should be, and that the exact method by which Reem was supposed to detonate the bomb is completely crazy. Rennie Petersen