The Exile — S. Khubiar

Book Two of The Eagle and the Child trilogy is the continuing story of the families and operatives in exile. As each engages the normal cycles of life, Shahla's horror overshadows each person in some way. Young Shai grows under Phillip's watchful eye, who keeps his promise to bring up the boy Jewish and never to tell the boy of his mother's past. These two promises are hard to keep, however, when Shai encounters anti-Semitism and Shai discovers hints of Shahla's violent life. When the secret is finally revealed, Shai's rebellion against his mother's faith erupts into a declaration to go into the IDF's special forces himself. When Phillip spurns Amanda's advances, she threatens to expose the "accident" and have Phillip jailed based on evidence she never reported to the police. Samuel descends from the heights of clandestine service, both benefiting and suffering from skills acquired in his military and secret service. His exile causes him to question his own moral poverty, and he concludes that in simply selecting from a buffet of rules from his parents' faith, he has become a "well-fed hypocrite," but he doubts he can overcome the shadow of violence that dogs him and to which he returns under pressure. Uzi resurfaces twice with news of death. The second death has the potential to bring an end to the exile, but Phillip discovers Shahla and Uzi's old secret, and Uzi and Phillip face off in a New York hotel for the final time.