The Ambassadors: A Novel

With its sweeping historical and geographical range, George Lerner's beautifully ambitious debut novel takes readers deep into the complex lives of a New York family and the searing upheavals of late 20th century Africa. Embedded in real events, The Ambassadors takes readers on an unforgettable journey through the Congo, Germany, and Brooklyn as it examines one family's passage through genocide and grief.

Jacob Furman has always chosen his call to duty over his wife, Susanna, and their son, Shalom. When he's deployed to the Congo as a Mossad operative to help the Tutsis in their fight against the Hutus, Susanna and Shalom are once again left to contemplate his absence. Susanna, a Holocaust survivor and an esteemed linguistics scholar, buries herself in work as she searches for the biological roots of human language, while Shalom, overwhelmed by the accomplishments of his parents, struggles in search of his identity.

After years apart, a fragile reunion borne out of illness sparks a sense of family they never had before, connecting the three in a web of emotion not just to one another, but to the political events that have defined our century.