Lone Soldier

Lone Soldier is part military thriller, mistaken identity and complicated star-crossed love story. Fast-paced action is paired with meticulously researched historical events.

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Lone Soldier brings alive the shifting motivations and allegiances of larger-than-life characters during the early 1970s, some of the most significant years in the history of Israel and the United States. In the spirit of Herman Wouk’s novel, The Winds of War, Lone Soldier is part military thriller, mistaken identity and complicated star-crossed love story. Fast-paced action is paired with meticulously researched historical events.  Lone Soldier features a mixture of real and fictional characters to create a sprawling epic of the tensions between Israel and the U.S. and between a range of social classes in a time of love and war. What emerges is the portrait of one man in particular, Arik Meir, a hero for his time – and for all time.

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Meet the Characters

Arik Meir

Born into poverty, Arik is an only child, a loner from the wrong side of Los Angeles. His father, injured during the 1948 Israeli war and unable to work, depends on Arik for everything. An outstanding athlete, Arik tries to fit into the mainstream Jewish community, but he feels like an outcast. He's smart and handsome, but that's not enough to be accepted. The only place where he's comfortable is in the African American community, where he's accepted unconditionally. Arik gives up everything dear to him to join the Israeli Army as a lone soldier.

Dahlia Gilad

Dahlia, the daughter of the Israeli Ambassador to the United States living in Washington, DC, is a beautiful, smart, athletic teenager with a bright future. She’s Israel’s junior-division tennis champion, who speaks four languages, and has travelled the world. But she is also spoiled, immature, impressionable, and prone to making rash decisions. She can be sweet, but despite her “sophistication” she is surprisingly sheltered and isolated from the real world. Her naiveté nearly costs her life.

Ze’evi Ehrenreich

A handsome, smart rogue, the son of one of the wealthiest Jews in the US who grew up in the lap of luxury. Ze’evi is extremely sophisticated socially, mingling with the sons and daughters of America’s business elites, political figures, as well as Hollywood celebrities. Although extremely well thought of amongst his peers, Ze’evi harbors a dark side. As his relationship with Dahlia deepened he draws her into his world of shadows.

Benny Gilad

The Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Benny is ambitious, distinguished and successful with a dark secret. He loves his family, but he is determined that nothing should interfere with his career. He is persuasive and charismatic but within the family, he is overbearing, protective and opinionated. His actions nearly destroy them.

Mikki Zohar

Mikki Zohar is a beautiful and brilliant Israeli intelligence officer.  She comes from a well-known military family. Though she is tough, Mikkey is soft inside especially when she's with Arik.  Her family is warm and embracing, adopting him as one of their sons.  Mikkey will do anything for her country, but mostly anything for Arik.

Ze’ev Meir

Ze’ev Meir, Arik’s father, is a former boxer and Holocaust survivor who immigrated to Israel and then lost a leg heroically in the 1948 war. For some reason, he got no government compensation for his loss and ended up in LA. Unable to work, he became dependent on his brother which made him angry and morose. Chronically battling complications from his injury, he constantly vents his frustration on Arik, who makes it his mission to find out what happened to his father.

A Story About...

Romance

Two flawed characters meet in summer camp and want to marry, but circumstances separate them. Read how Arik and Dahlia change when they go their separate ways ….

Heroism

Arik is an athlete par excellence - but being a soldier requires more. Can Arik make the right choices as he comes of age into adulthood?

Identity

Throughout the book, Arik tries to find out who he is and what is his purpose. Living in the shadow of his father’s shattered life Arik struggles to find the roots of his family’s suffering.

About the Author

Dr. Leo Rozmaryn is a reconstructive hand and microvascular surgeon by trade. A native of New York City, Dr. Rozmaryn graduated from Queens College in 1977, and later received an MD from Columbia University. Dr. Rozmaryn has a busy private practice in the Washington DC area, and has been selected by Washingtonian Magazine as one of its “Top Doctors” for the past twelve years, and has been cited by the Washington Post and the US News and World Report for professional excellence.

Dr. Rozmaryn has participated in three disaster relief missions, the first following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, then in northern Israel immediately following the Second Lebanon war, and again in Haiti following the earthquake in 2010. In August 2018, Dr. Rozmaryn participated in a search and rescue training program with the Israeli Army’s Home Front Command with a view to participating in an Israeli international search and rescue team who travel world-wide to assist in natural disasters.

Dr. Rozmaryn has grown up in the religious Zionist/ Modern Orthodox Jewish community. Besides his medical career, Dr. Rozmaryn has a keen interest in history, especially Middle East history. An avid reader of Jewish and Israeli history and a frequent visitor to Israel after completing high school there, he brings to bear a lifetime of experience and scholarship into the writing of his debut novel.

Dr. Rozmaryn lives with his family in Silver Spring, Maryland.

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