Best-selling author

Leon Uris, out with

a new novel, talks

about the media,

Israel, his Judaism

and the future

of America.

ALICE BURDICK
SCHWEIGER
Special to the Jewish News

n a recent Wednesday
afternoon, as the sun
starts to peek out
behind the clouds, vet-
; eran author Leon Uris sits on his
back porch overlooking the still,
blue water of New York's Long
, •
Island Sound. At age 74, and
tired of the hustle and bustle of
big city life, he has made his
roomy beachfronu home his per-
manent residence.
Ever since the publication of
I
his
first novel, Battle Cry, in
h . __rst
1954 — and with subsequent
, best-sellers like Exodus, Topaz,
QB VII, Mila 18, Trinity and
Armageddon — readers have
looked forward to his always
powerful works.
The author's new novel, A God
in Ruins (HarperCollins; $26), has
just been released. Uris hopes his
fans will not be disappointed.
"A God in Ruins is the culmi-
nation of my life experiences,"
Uris says with a smile, as he leans
forward and rests his elbows on
the patio table. "I have been
heading toward this book for a
long time, although the actual
research and writing only took
about a year and a half."
A God in Ruins begins in the
year 2008. Quinn Patrick
O'Connell, a former Marine hero
and liberal Colorado governor, is
a strong candidate to become the
second Irish Catholic president of
the United States.
With flashbacks spanning
from the 1940s to the new mil-
, lennium, Uris traces O'Connell's
roots. His parents relocate from
New York to a ranch in
Colorado, where the young
Quinn grows up amid the Rocky
Mountains. He chooses to attend
college in his home state, and
finds romance. He eventually
marries the daughter of a local
artist, and after a stormy begin-

;

BEYOND 'EXODUS' on page 88

6/18
1999

Detroit Jewish News in