Exodus is a historical novel by the American novelist Leon Uris about the founding of the State of Israel beginning with a compressed retelling of the voyages of the 1947 immigration ship Exodus and describing the histories of the various main characters and the ties of their personal lives to the birth of the new Jewish state.
Published by Doubleday in 1958, it became an international publishing phenomenon, the biggest bestseller in the United States since Gone with the Wind (1936) and was still at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list eight months after its release.
Otto Preminger directed a 1960 film based on the novel, featuring Paul Newman as Ari Ben Canaan. It focuses mainly on the escape from Cyprus and subsequent events in Palestine.
The origins of Exodus
Uris covered the Suez Crisis as a war correspondent in 1956 and there are two stories told about how he came to write the work. The first suggests Uris, motivated by an intense interest in Israel, financed his own research for the novel by selling the film rights in advance to MGM and writing articles about the Sinai campaign. It has also been reported that the book involved two years of research, extensive travel including 12,000 miles within Israel, and 1,200 interviews.
Whatever the genesis of the work, it initiated a new sympathy for the newly established State of Israel. The book has been widely praised as successful propaganda for Israel. Uris acknowledged writing from a pro-Israel perspective after the book's publication, stating that: "I set out to tell a story of Israel. I am definitely biased. I am definitely pro-Jewish," and the then–Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion remarked that: "As a literary work, it isn't much. But as a piece of propaganda, it's the greatest thing ever written about Israel".
The book also contributed greatly to general knowledge of the Holocaust for Jews and non-Jews alike, bringing more awareness to the general public of the plight of the Jews under Nazi Germany.
Plot
Summary
In 1946, American foreign correspondent Mark Parker and American nurse Kitty Fremont reunite as old friends. Kitty is an American volunteer at the Karaolos internment camp on Cyprus, where thousands of Jews—Holocaust survivors—are being held by the British, who refused to allow them to go to Palestine. Separately, another pair of friends, Jewish fighters Ari Ben Canaan and David Ben Ami, also reunite.
Ari obtains a cargo ship, which became the SS Exodus, with the intention to smuggle 302 Jewish children from the camp for an illegal voyage to Mandate Palestine before being discovered by military authorities. When the British learn the refugees are aboard a ship in the Famagusta harbor, they blockade it, preventing the ship's departure. The refugees stage a hunger strike, during which the camp's doctor dies. Ari has wired the ship with explosives and threatens to blow up the ship and the refugees if the British try to board. When the British attempt to gain time by negotiating, Ari announces that every day 10 children will commit suicide on deck for the world to see. The British relent and allow the Exodus safe passage.
A generation previously, Ari's father Jossi and uncle Yakov came to Palestine following the Pogroms in the Russian Empire. They are disappointed because the Jews do not farm, and they take money from overseas philanthropists. The brothers change their names to Akiva (Yakov) and Barak (Jossi). Jossi tries to understand the Palestinians, using demonstrations of force to gain their respect. The Balfour Declaration was issued during World War I. The two brothers become senior in the Jewish government, and debate using terrorism to fight the British authorities.
The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine is approved, and the conflict with the Palestinians begins in earnest. The Haganah forces prevail over the three Arab generals who vie for fame. They adopt siege warfare tactics. The Jewish victory at Safed, incorrectly rumored by using an atom bomb, frightens the Palestinian fighters, who flee to Lebanon. Israel proclaims its independence and gradually defeats the Arab nations.
Themes
The main plot of the novel, writes Bonnie Helms, involves a "story of great courage." Among the characters are "freedom fighters" Ari and Barak Ben Canaan and Dov Landau, whose stories are told in flashbacks. American nurse Kitty Fremont and German refugee Karen Hansen work alongside them to help overcome British immigration restrictions. The novel includes several love stories, although they often occur among violence and terrorism. "Uris gives the reader a strong sense of the past, present, and the future of the Jewish people," states Helms.
Years after the book's success, Uris explains why he thinks it received such an enthusiastic reception: