cover image Discovering Natural Israel

Discovering Natural Israel

Michal Strutin. Jonathan David Publishers, $27.95 (341pp) ISBN 978-0-8246-0413-4

In Discovering Natural Israel: From the Coral Reefs of Eilat to the Emerald Crown of Mount Carmel, Michal Strutin (Places of Grace) shows travelers natural wonders often obscured by political realities: Makhtesh Ramon, Israel's Grand Canyon; the hot springs of Gader and numerous other spectacular landscapes. The wildlife is fantastically varied. Strutin encounters two-foot long parrot fish grazing on coral in the Red Sea; wafer-thin, often motionless gazelle camouflaged in the Negev Desert; colonies of griffon vultures in the Golan; skinks; fringe-toed lizards; hyraxes and countless other mythic-seeming beasts. ( June 2)