Passport Control Available Again

My 2018 novel Passport Control was unavailable for a while. My publisher retired a while back and the rights reverted to me. But I was busy writing two more novels (With A Good Eye and The Inheritance). Meanwhile, a couple of book clubs requested Passport Control and I couldn't even get them back copies. In short, the link has been restored for print copies:  https://www.amazon.com/Passport-Control-Gila-Green/dp/163320054X I might get Kindle up and running too. It is still technically out of print as the rights are mine and I have not decide whether to self publish or to go with another publisher. But at least, for now it is available.

Miriam Gil knows little about Israel. Her father won't talk about his life there or the brother he left behind when he came to Canada. Hurt and angry when he tells her to move out to make room for his new girlfriend, she enrolls in an Israeli university. She falls in love with Guy, a former combat soldier who dreams of peace. Miriam is caught off guard when her visa and passport application are rejected on the grounds that she's suspected of being a Syrian Christian. In rapid order, the university boots her out, her one friend is killed in a brawl, and Miriam is accused of murder by Israeli police. Despite troubling revelations about her father's past, Miriam must reconcile with him if she is to prove her innocence, reclaim her life, and hang on to her new found love.

Editorial Reviews

Many novels have attempted to orchestrate the impossible marriage of politics and human relations in the state of Israel, but few have presided over that perilous ceremony with the grace, affection, and emotional clarity of Gila Green's Passport Control. A stunning achievement. Steve Stern, author of The Book of Mischief.

I could not stop reading. There is no higher compliment than that. You have captured some truly wonderful, funny but lunatic moments of a world that you have uniquely rendered with amazing detachment. Many of these pages will leave readers grappling with a sense of their own identities as they left me. Mark Mirsky, author of Blue Hill Avenue and Fiction Magazine editor.

Gila Green's passionate novel, Passport Control, is a mosaic of one family's secrets set against the background of Israel's multiple identities. It is smart and sympathetic, admirable in both intent and execution. Melvin Jules Bukiet, author of Strange Fire.

An excellent read! Overflowing with drama, politics, personality and angst, Gila Green's Passport Control delivers on all of these fronts. It's 1992. When twenty year old Miriam learns that she is no longer welcome to live in her father's Ottawa home, she heads off to her parents' native Israel to continue her studies at Haifa University. Hoping to find out more about her estranged family, Miriam ends up tangled in a web of old secrets, vengeance, and pain. Green does not give Miriam or her readers the satisfaction of a true coming of age tale. Instead, she offers us the richer, messier journey of a young woman whose search for greater understanding leads to a more honest confusion. Green plants Miriam in the Israel of the Oslo peace process, a time and place that highlights her naiveté and ignorance about "the real Israel." Green expects her readers to catch up just as quickly. From the Haifa University dorms and dining room to Jerusalem's Old City and a northern kibbutz, Green's writing gets directly to the core of Israeli society. Green presents her characters and their setting in vivid detail, while still allowing readers to make their own emotional connections to the time and places in Miriam's story. Throughout Miriam's experiences, Green weaves a sophisticated commentary on the political and socio-economic divisions in Israel and Diaspora Jewry. This is a tremendous gift to readers who will understand all its subtleties. Book clubs will find an endless stream of discussion topics. Casual readers will appreciate Green's ability to fit so much nuance in a tightly written narrative. Like Miriam, all will emerge with a greater empathy for those who need to live with a complicated past. --Rabbi Deborah Miller, founder of Books and Blintzes blog.

Passport Control by Gila Green is an amazing book with lots of plot twists and mystery. It tells the story of a Canadian Jew, Miriam Gil, who comes to Haifa University to study. She gets involved with many unexpected people and events. Passport Control is fiction, but to be honest, it's clear that everything Green writes about is a real possibility. I've been in Israel for close to half a century, and nothing surprises me. Even though I've never studied in an Israeli university, I can see how a naïve Canadian student can find herself in the situations that Green places Miriam Gil. There is a lot of material about the Israel of a few decades ago, which is so different from Modern high tech Israel.
Reading Passport Control is a good way to learn about what Israel was once like. I highly recommend the book and truly enjoyed reading it. It's suitable for older teens and adults.
Some things have changed so much in recent years, but I think that nowadays there's even more contact between Jews and Arabs, especially in Israeli universities. Foreigners would most probably be shocked at how much integration there really is. Batya Medad, Shiloh Musings blogspot