If you want to know about Israel beyond what you can find in the history books or newspaper articles, you will find much of interest in this collection of autobiographical stories by people who have since made Melbourne their home.

The diversity of time and place in these stories will inform and intrigue. For instance, there is one about farming in the Galilee in the 1870s; another about being a doctor to Jewish and Arab patients in Haifa in the 1930s; what it was like to enjoy an idyllic kibbutz childhood in the 1950s, or being a soldier in the sand dunes near Suez in 1970 showing, of all things, the movie Schehrazade to the troops.

There is also a fascinating 'album' of twenty Australians who chose to live in Israel.

Through these personal stories, the history of Israel itself can be glimpsed and understood in a very lively and direct way.