Stateless

In this next thrilling story from Alan Gold and Mike Jones, we meet Shalman, a freedom-fighter turned peacenik and archaeologist, and his young beautiful wife, Judit, a refugee from the horrors of Stalin’s USSR.

As the Second World War draws to a close, and the world begins to learn the truth about Hitler’s genocide, the foundation of the State of Israel as a permanent home for what’s left of the Jewish people becomes increasingly urgent. In Palestine, Arab and Jewish forces fight each other and the British for supremacy and the right to own the land, causing a nightmare environment of hatred and suspicion.

But a deeply buried global conspiracy, which has its origin in Stalin’s Russia, seeks to undermine Israel’s future as an independent nation. A plot to fashion the fledgling nation as a puppet of the Soviet Union rests upon a handful of committed Jewish Communists, led secretly by Judit. But is she a heartless assassin, a disciple of the evils of Beria and the Kremlin, or a committed fusion of Zionist and Communist?

And in the darkest recesses of ancient history, we meet Shalman’s ancestors, themselves descendants of the builders of Solomon’s Temple. As the family escapes the nightmare of the Roman occupation of Jerusalem, it witnesses the glories of the Islamic renaissance in Baghdad and the rampages of the Crusaders through the region.

Another exciting instalment in this story of the births of nations and of the strength of their people.

About the Authors

Alan Gold is an internationally published author of fifteen novels, including Bell of the Desert. He is a regular contributor to The Australian, The Spectator, and other media as an opinion columnist and literary critic, as well as being a lecturer and mentor at the masters and doctoral degree level in creative writing at the University of Sydney, the Australian National University, and the University of Western Australia.

Mike Jones is an international script editor and script developer for traditional and new media. The head of Story for Portal Entertainment UK, he is also a lecturer in screen studies at the Australian Film TV & Radio School. He is the author of more than 200 essays, articles, and reviews, and the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious Writers’ Guild AWGIE Award for a movie script.