Please join us for Michael Cooper's Book-talk 

Foxes in the Vineyard - The Challenge and Metaphor of Evil

Sunday, May 20th from 4-5pm 

A native of Berkeley, Michael Cooper graduated Oakland High School in 1966 and emigrated to Israel. After a couple of years at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, attended and graduated Tel Aviv University Medical School in 1975. Currently a pediatric cardiologist in Northern California, returns to Palestine at least twice a year for medical missions serving children with heart defects without adequate access to care. Foxes in the Vineyard, grand prize winner of 2011 Indie Publishing Contest, is his first novel. 

On one level, Foxes in the Vineyard is historical fiction—raising a hypothetical, though oddly plausible, historical alternative.  On this level, the novel tells of Evan Sinclair, a professor of history at Boston University, who learns that his father has disappeared while on a dig in Jerusalem during the spring of 1948. Evan returns to Palestine on the eve of the first Arab-Israel war to search for his father.

Evan finds his father, and far more; a love he thought he had lost, and covert elements of the Third Reich—Waffen SS from North Africa, and Gestapo fugitives from the ruins of Berlin. The Nazis use counter-intelligence and terror to stoke the fires of hatred and fear, driving the Jews and Arabs to war and driving the British from Palestine. Their ultimate goal is to seize Jerusalem as the new capital of a reborn Third Reich with the Temple Mount as their fortress.

On another level, the novel is one of speculative fiction where the Nazis serve as metaphor for mystical religious fanaticism, ultra-nationalism, and militarism—a toxic mixture that continues to infect the Middle East conflict. On this level there arise broader philosophical questions about the presence of God, the problem of Evil, and our challenge and responsibility to act.

Bookshop Benicia opened in July of 1993

From the first day we opened for business we have striven to be a true neighborhood bookstore for the Benicia and Vallejo communities.  Those of us who work here do so because we not only love books but we also love sharing that enthusiasm.  We believe in the power of the written word to change lives and broaden personal horizons.  We believe that communities deserve their own locally owned bookstores, businesses that respond to and reflect their neighborhoods.

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Bookshop Benicia is a locally owned, independent bookstore, dedicated to providing the finest in personal service to the Benicia, Vallejo and greater Solano County communities since 1993.