WE JUST WANT TO LIVE HERE: A Palestinian Teenager, an Israeli Teenager—An Unlikely Friendship

The two authors, now 18, met in Switzerland during an exchange program in 2000, and returned to a Jerusalem soon gripped by the second intifada. After falling out of touch, they exchanged the letters collected in this book from August to November of 2002, cycling through anguish, accusation, artifice, allowance, appreciation—all of the beginnings of real friendship. The book proves to be that rarest of contexts—a place for young women of the Middle East to discuss politics with openness and mutual respect. 6 maps. (Sept. 12)