Book Review: The Wolf Shall Dwell with the Lamb

The Wolf Shall Dwell with the Lamb. Emmet Vermilion Thread Publishing, June 2026, Paperback, ebook, audiobook , 358 pages.

Reviewed by Wayne Turmel.

This historical novel feels particularly relevant at this time. It tells the story of a young Jewish settler from his roots in southern Lebanon, to an adulthood as a soldier and spy for the Israeli army.  

Joseph Friemann is born in Lebanon, and his young life is upended when he is abandoned in a Maronite convent. What at first looks like a blessing, becomes a nightmare of antisemitism and abuse. When he’s finally forced to flee, he crosses the border into Palestine just in time to get caught up in the 1948 war for Israeli independence. 

There he becomes a soldier and then a spy, giving up years of his life in service to the nascent country of Israel. The action pieces are well-written and exciting, and the story is crammed with a wealth of details most readers won’t know but add context to much of what’s happening in that part of the world today. 

The book is basically written in three parts: Friedmann’s youth in Lebanon, his early years in Israel, and his final assignment as an undercover agent, where he returns to the country of his birth. There, he nearly undermines his mission by confronting the ghosts of his past and seeking the one woman he can’t forget. 

As with a lot of first-person novels, the secondary characters feel a bit flat and convenient, and the dialogue a little exposition heavy. That said, this is a well-written saga about Israel’s early years and the people who built that country in the aftermath of the second world war.