I Am Not Your Enemy: Stories to Transform a Divided World

An inciteful, timely story about finding reconciliation and forgiveness in such a divided world. McRay takes us through his journeys in Israel and Palestine, Northern Ireland, and South Africa. In Israel, we meet Ali, then in Tel Aviv, we meet Dr. Zoughbi Zoughbi. In West Jerusalem, we meet Moran, again in Israel we meet Robi Damelin. In Bethlehem, Abdullah and Rushdi; then, in Ireland, Pàdraig and later Jo. Finally, in South Africa, we meet Eleanor du Plooy, Themba Lonzi, and lastly Rami Elhanan. McRay takes us through his journey around the world to find answers about reconciliation.

The reader is able to take away eye-opening and critical lessons. One such being learned from Robi Damelin that Michael writes down: Without understanding, your empathy lacks comprehension and honor. This is just one of the ten lessons that can be learned from this book. That is why I recommend it to everyone, though personally I struggled reading this book because as an avid reader I tend to prefer and lean towards fantasy/fictional books or literature. Michael T. McRay writes his journey so that it reads differently. He is telling his memoir story but it doesn’t feel like literature. This can make it hard to fully understand the things that are occurring on the page.

To conclude, this is a great book that covers many things that a number of people are afraid to talk about, but it can be hard to follow with the language used.