Portrait of an Author: Orthodox Woman’s First Novel Centers on Middle East Terror

Where does an American-born Orthodox Jewish mother of five get the knowledge needed to write a fast-moving, rather sexy Israeli spy thriller?

If you’re Barbara Sofer, you do your homework.

A longtime journalist, Sofer, 47, employed her talents as a reporter during the three years it took to write her first novel, "The Thirteenth Hour," which was just released by Dutton Books.

In the process of writing the book, which follows the lives of two women — one an American Jewish immigrant to Israel, the other an American-educated Palestinian — as they are recruited by the Israeli and Palestinian intelligence forces respectively, Sofer says she asked herself one question: "What would I do if I was recruited?"

Seated at her dining-room table in the Jerusalem home she shares with her husband, physicist-writer Gerald Schroeder, and their children, Sofer says the idea for the novel evolved from an actual terrorist attack.

"About five years ago, four women were stabbed to death at a park where I often took my children to play. Afterward, I was tormented by the question of what I would have done if I’d been there with the terrorist," she said.

"I felt overwhelmed by helplessness, so I took a self-defense class. Then the question became, `How can I use these skills?’ Of course, I never wanted to have to use them, but I imagined what it would be like to defend myself and others. And then I just started writing."

To imbue the book with realism, Sofer embarked on a personal odyssey that led her to a Muslim cleric, an expert on explosives and a martial arts master.

Stressing that nothing in the novel is based on classified information, Sofer nevertheless says that her characters and their actions did not evolve in a vacuum.

"I needed to learn about explosives, so the first thing I did was read up on them," she says. "Then I went to my cousin, a sapper in the IDF, who gave me a lesson."

Smiling broadly, Sofer recounts how, during this lesson, one of her cousin’s fellow kibbutzniks overheard the conversation.

"I said something like, `I want to blow up a bus but not kill anybody,’ and my cousin told me how this might be done. He noticed that this man, a carpenter who was there to finish a closet, wasn’t finishing the closet.

"My cousin had to go and tell the guy not to report us."

To flesh out the Palestinian side of the story, Sofer consulted a Muslim religious leader.

"I’ve interviewed Palestinians, have been in Palestinian homes in professional circumstances and I drew on this information. In addition, I went to an Imam because I wanted to make sure I had the right details about Muslim worship."

Initially, she says, the Muslim cleric was "insulting."

"He thought I was just one more reporter from a secular background who was interested in his culture but knew little about her own," she said. "He had stereotyped me, but once I asked pointed questions and we got past that, he was very helpful."

Indeed, if there is one thing that Sofer, a Connecticut native who immigrated to Israel more than 20 years ago, has no tolerance for, it is stereotypes.

Noting that Orthodox Jews in Israel are invariably labeled right-wingers, Sofer sees herself as "an observant person who fully supports the peace process. I think, as Shimon Peres thinks, that there are hundreds of thousands of religious Jews who support the peace process, who would vote for the peace process, but too often feel left out of the peace process."

In writing a novel that takes place just before the September 1993 signing of the Israeli-Palestinian peace accord on the White House lawn, Sofer says she strived to make her characters as multidimensional as the Israelis and Palestinians she meets every day.

"These characters aren’t stereotypical. These are real Arabs and Jews, real secular and religious people who have their good points and their bad points. I believe they give the reader a chance to get beyond the cliches."

Although the novel is not, strictly speaking, educational, Sofer says she "wanted it to open up the Middle East the way `Shogun’ [by James Clavell] opened up Japan for readers.

"After reading `The Thirteenth Hour,’ people told me it was the first time they understood the news coming out of Israel. I’m pleased about that."

Sofer says she has been equally pleased by readers’ reactions to her two female protagonists.

"I, for one, was tired of hearing only men’s voices" in spy novels, she says. "As a feminist, I wanted the women’s characters to stand out. A lot of people have responded to this."

As a modern-Orthodox Jew, Sofer admits to feeling "some ambivalence" over the novel’s steamier scenes.

"I knew I wanted to write an adult book and felt sex was an organic part of the story, not something gratuitous. I do hope that people will understand that this is a novel, not a children’s book, but the bottom line is, I trust my readers.

"Sexual tension is part of any book, and without it, it would be like writing about Middle Eastern terror without including the violence. That’s the last thing anyone would want to read."

Despite the present slow pace of the Israeli-Palestinian peace track, Sofer remains hopeful.

"I’m a great optimist and hope the peace process will continue and that things will improve. It’s unrealistic to think there won’t be terrorism, but Israelis can’t live their lives indoors. The terrorists want us to live in fear."

As her novel’s characters demonstrate, "The best defense is being prepared."