Blind, fatherless, homosexual, Russian émigré speechwriter Nathan Kazakov has enough problems even before his left ear is obliterated by a bullet presumably meant for his employer, the hawkish prime minister of Israel. Consumed by the desire to discover exactly what happened, Nathan begins an investigation that leads him into a web of conspiracies involving messianic orthodox settlers, Arab terrorists, and the Israeli secret service. Was the bullet intended for Nathan? for the prime minister? or perhaps for the prime minister's charismatic son Gabriel, an archaeologist who does not share his father's politics? One clue leads to Leviticus, another beneath the Temple Mount. Told by the blind hero as he staggers through Jerusalem, Strange Fire is a fiercely compelling, darkly comic literary tour de force fueled by Melvin Jules Bukiet's singular imagination.

Genre: Mystery