In the Belly of the Whale: Portraits from a Fractured Israel - Paperback

For more than a decade, Ruth Margalit has been chronicling life in contemporary Israeli for The New Yorker and the New York Times magazine as the country has embraced right-wing extremism under Benjamin Netanyahu. Here she collects 11 of her profiles of wide-ranging figures from across society, returning to consider and update them from her current reality as a writer and mother living in Tel Aviv at a time of war.

To live in Israel today, Margalit writes, is to be either a whale or a Jonah--trying to make do in the belly of the whale. Her profiles of Israelis from all strata of society represent both: outsiders trying to make a life in a system designed against them, and insiders hatching plans and amassing power all while riding the twin waves of populism and jingoism.

Richly reported and animated by a novelist's eye for detail and drama, Margalit's writing is distinguished by its political acuity and narrative sweep. Kaleidoscopic in scope and poignant in its portrait of a country in turmoil, In the Belly of the Whale traces an unforgettable journey through present-day Israel, illuminating realities that can seem inscrutable even to the keenest observers.