Week 2 (November 9-15) – Nonfiction Journeys – Frances.  This week choose a book that reflects a journey for its author/protagonist or for the reader or both.  This can be a physical journey,  an emotional, psychological or spiritual journey or a combination of these.   Any nonfiction title that leaves its author/protagonist and/or reader in a different place at the end from the start point is good for this challenge. Hosted by Frances at volatilerune.blog.

When I saw the topic for the second week of Nonfiction November, I knew that this book would be perfect. The Future is Peace was our book club book last month, but I saved the review for today since it is a physical journey taken by the authors, leading the reader and the world to a new, and better, destination.

Book: The Future is Peace by Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon
Genre: Nonfiction
Publisher: Crown Publishing
Publication date: 2026

Source: E-book and hardback, both borrowed from local libraries

Summary: The Future is Peace describes a physical journey through Israel and occupied areas by two men, one Palestinian and one Israeli Jew. Both experienced the loss of loved ones at the hands of “the other side.” Both structured their travel businesses in ways that respected that their homeland has a long history involving many cultures. Both turned away from revenge and toward peacebuilding as the only path to a future worth living for themselves and their children and the only way to honor those who have died.

With the travel industry slow-down caused by the war on Gaza, Aziz and Maoz had the time to join together on a journey of their own.

The front pages of The Future is Peace are maps produced by Conspicious Cartography Inc. The final map shows the journey that Azis and Maoz shared.

Thoughts: Have you ever taken a friend to your childhood home? Have you ever been guided around a town by someone who was raised in that community? Those experiences, for me, have always included a lot of storytelling.

• Here is the house that gave the best candy at Halloween.
• That park is where I got so dizzy on the merry-go-round that my friend had to practically carry me to the bathroom.
• Yes, it’s weird that I’m driving you through the cemetery, but everyone who lives here knows that it has the best view in town.

This book feels a little like that. At each stop on their shared journey. Aziz and Maoz share the stories that they remember or learned related to that place.

Day 3, when they visited the East Jerusalem area, generated some of the most touching stories. Aziz remembered the events around when his older brother died, as a result of injuries sustained in an Israeli prison. Maoz remembered his days of mandatory service in the Israeli Defense Forces, serving at a base in the West Bank.

It wasn’t until Aziz and I were driving together on Highway 1, with the hills of Bethany on our right, that I realized this base was less than two and a half miles from where he had grown up. (p. 79)

The single emotion that our book club members expressed most after reading this book was “hope.” And we were all surprised that this journey led us to hope. The book has crushing, devastating stories. As readers, we were enraged, laden with grief, and moved to tears. The authors refuse to be crushed by either the devastation or by the criticism that their approach is naïve or, worse, a betrayal of their own people. The authors modeled a way of traveling through the world that we wanted to emulate.

Peacebuilders have been marginalized, both at home and abroad, for far too long. We are not invited to sit at negotiation tables or included in international summits with those making decisions on behalf of our peoples. We are used to being dismissed as dreamers and mocked as being naïve. Yet we are realists. We know that bombs will not bring quiet, walls will not protect us, and war will not bring security to either side. What is truly naïve is imagining fear and multigenerational trauma will lead to security, or that any strategy to end the horror of this conflict can succeed without dreamers and visionaries at the vanguard. (p. 3)

For a peek at how these two authors interact with each other and the hard issues of our world, here is their 2024 TED Talk.

Appeal: For me, this book came along at just the right moment. I wanted hope to fuel action. I hope that more people will read this book and join with us in this journey.

Every time you read in the Quran or the Bible that God speaks to someone, it’s always the same message: Get up and take action….Get out of your comfort zone and go do something–and it’s always something uncomfortable, something that may seem beyond your abilities, something important and great. (p. 214)