A story of an Australian screenwriter in quest of her past as she returns to Israel, the land of her birth.

Danielle Green's reasons for returning to the city of her birth, Jerusalem, during the first Lebanon War are twofold: first, she is researching a screenplay that she hopes will make her rich; second, she is seeking a reunion with an autocratic Jewish father who has refused to acknowledge her existence for most of her life. After a separation of many years and many miles, she hopes he will be willing to reconcile with her.

In the quest for her past, Danielle is reunited with a former teacher, an old woman of deep wisdom. She falls in love with an Israeli and is drawn into a web of terrorists and nationalists, soldiers and survivors. Yet the confusion, divisiveness and famed aggression of Israel is only the best-known part of an oft-repeated story. The country's progress, hindered as it is by centuries of religious, emotional and political turmoil, provides the backdrop to Danielle's personal journey of growth and self-respect.

Alive with the splendour and pulse of Jerusalem itself, Winter in Jerusalem is a stunning story of a woman caught in the crossfire of her own past and the tangled drama of modern Israel.

Winner of the inaugural Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book Award, Australasian division.