I have been agonizing over whether to include "The People of Forever Are Not Afraid" on my list of must-read fall books because 鈥� FULL DISCLOSURE 鈥� I work for Hogarth, the publisher of this book. But I am a reader before I am anything else and if someone held out on me about this book 鈥� for whatever reason 鈥� I鈥檇 be riled. "The People of Forever Are Not Afraid" is the story of Yael, Avishag, and Lea, three Israeli girls who grew up together in a small town in Northern Israel. We meet them at the end of high school and follow them through their military service in the Israel Defense Forces. It is a hyper-real coming of age story set against the banality of war and army life. The voice is incredible. The story is relentless. You will eschew friends, family, meals, and sleep to read this book. You will stay up nights thinking about it when it鈥檚 over. It will remind you why you read fiction. It will remind you why you read.
