Aramin and Elhanan met in 2005 through Combatants for Peace, an organization that aims to end the occupation of Palestine, and they have become close friends. They are now involved in the Parents Circle - Families Forum, an organization for Israelis and Palestinians who have lost family members in the conflict.

McCann met the men in 2015, when he first visited the region with his storytelling nonprofit, Narrative 4. He had been interested in Israel and Palestine’s history since talking with George Mitchell, the former U.S. senator who helped broker peace negotiations in Ireland and the Middle East, and who appeared in McCann’s continent- and century-spanning 2013 novel “TransAtlantic.”

“If anything dilates my nostrils, it’s the sense of some sort of difficulty,” McCann said. “I knew I was completely ignorant of what was going on there, and I thought I’d like to try and explore.”

[ This book was one of our most anticipated titles of February. See the full list. ]