ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
Itamar S.N White Smoke
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n White Smoke, the critically-acclaimed second novel by Itamar S.N, the character Yonatan Green is a bisexual intellectual playboy who will do anything to provoke his right-wing father, Israel’s Prime Minister, who always puts the country before his family. However, Yonatan finds himself proud of him for the first time with the creation of Isratine – a democratic union of Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the small area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. When Yonatan meets Meir, a shy High-Tech entrepreneur, he falls in love for the first time, and the couple decides to get married. The family grows when fate brings Amal into their lives - a Palestinian girl, who is the victim of a family honor acid attack. Their “perfect” love story grows alongside the new state, however, the euphoria of peace and unification is fading, while both Jewish and Arab anti-liberal forces feel strong enough to join hands, putting the democratic heritage in jeopardy and threatening the life of the family. As smoke spreads over the country, the Prime Minister must acknowledge his mistakes and rethink the ambitious dream of Isratine. Will hope overcome primal fears and hatred? Itamar S.N recently spoke with us about his controversial yet beautifully written book. “The heroine, muse, my deus ex machina, Amal, a young Palestinian woman with secret college dreams, is cloistered in a conservative, patriarchal community. Her brother throws acid on her face for merely suspecting that she dishonored the family by sleeping with Jews. Her saviors, unexpectedly, are a powerful, gay married couple. It makes 114
Amal question everything she knows. White Smoke was born to undermine the traditional “right and left” conception. The ultra-right prime minister, the father of our gay married hero Yonatan, brings an out-of-the-box solution to the negotiating table, and then, with the Palestinian president, unites Israel and the Palestinian Authority to one liberal democracy: Isratine. Ultra-left Yonatan, who can’t believe what his father is doing, asks if he is dreaming, but actually, it’s not a fantasy, not Yonatan’s, not anyone’s. It’s actually, as weird as it might sound, the almost shared dream of both the extreme left and right here, creating the perfect circle. Only a real faceto-face relationship among the different tribes of any heterogenic country might cure the demonization of any single tribe. Does the reconciliation between the two nations enable gender liberation? Hell, yes!! Can a society that suppresses its citizens continue the oppression under a democratic regime in the name of Multiculturalism? Hell, no!!”-Itamar S.N, Author, White Smoke About the author: Itamar S.N is an Israeli writer and musician who has been having a 20year love affair with the restaurant business of sunny Tel Aviv. In his literary writing, he combines his education and interest in the history and politics of the Middle East (human rights in particular). He owns two cats and one big window with an ocean view for inspiration. In his spare time, he volunteers with the LGBTQ movement and as a writer for an Israeli Parliament Member. His debut novel, Niv, was published by the UK publisher Wilkinson House. White Smoke is his second novel. Available now on Amazon.
Metropolitan Magazine Palm Beach | Metmagny.com
“In our house of cards, everything is well known. Yonatan is the one card that cannot be touched. Remove it and everything will collapse.”White Smoke
