LIGHT YEARS
Tammar Stein
Laurel Leaf Books/Random Hous
Fiction
ISBN: 9780440239024
272 pages

Eighteen-year-old Maya Laor has had anything but a peaceful life. As a child she lived in Israel, where fighting, hate and bloodshed were widespread. After her boyfriend is killed in a suicide bombing she inadvertently causes, Maya decides to join the Israeli Army. She serves four years in the military, and then travels to the United States to study astronomy at the University of Virginia.

While trying to adjust to American life and forget about her tortured past, Maya discovers that her decision to leave home isn't as easy as she had hoped. She is terribly homesick, and has a difficult time dealing with the pressures of college and making new friends. Eventually, Maya's plan to keep her past a secret backfires. Will she be able to move on with her life and have a chance at a bright future, or will she dwell on her past forever?

First-time author Tammar Stein's narrative moves back and forth between Maya's American present and her Israeli past, allowing readers to see for themselves how completely different life in these two countries are. Readers both young and old will be moved by this journey of tragedy and healing.

   --- Reviewed by Ashley Hartlaub

• Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.