Leon Uris's world-bestselling novel Exodus became a profound influence on thoughts and feelings about the state of Israel.In The Haj, the author once again portrays a tormented nation through its living people.Haj Ibrahim - known as the Haj - is leader of the small but strategically placed village of Tabah.Sworn enemy - and secret friend - of Gideon Asch, Israeli settler, pioneer, fighter, the Haj and his men are seen first in all their false courage and manic ambition.Theirs is a world of oaths, blood, death and vengeance.But then his association with Asch takes him elsewhere - into diplomacy, and towards leadership of another kind...In Exodus, Leon Uris told of the birth of a new nation.In The Haj, he foretells the death of a race, of a faith, of peoples who have no greater enemies than themselves, in a novel that is as violent and turbulent as the times in which we live...