I had the rare and delightful pleasure of taking the journey with Polemi, Damian, and the rest of the captivating cast of characters as they travelled from the fertile, passionate, and introspective mind of Dimitri Cados onto the pages that ultimately became “Jerusalem Nights.” In his new novel, Cados creates an absorbing world that is by turns dreamlike, nightmarish, and full of optimism and righteousness. He leads his readers on a rather unique emotional voyage that addresses his lifelong concern with the conflicts among our great religions, witnessed most egregiously, historically and to this day, in the Middle East. (As his front-of-book bio indicates, the author draws on his early years at a monastery near Nazareth several decades ago.) A distinctive and gripping debut novel.