Armageddon 2029 may seem at first to be a contrived futuristic novel, but it is historical, clever, and full of surprises.

It asks one big question: will Israel survive a deadly Iranian attack in 2029, or will it self-destruct, taking the whole world with it? Through twists and turns, a ninety-year saga is woven around a set of candlesticks (pamatot), secretly lit and candles blessed every Friday evening by Chueta Mallorcans since the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492.

(Chuetas are descendants of Jews of the Mallorcan islands, off Spain, who were either conversos or Crypto Jews. Although practicing Catholics, they married only among themselves, thereby quietly preserving a purely Jewish identity.)

Mallorcan women knew only the ritual of candle-lighting but nothing about the meaning of the pamatot. Leonor Valls keeps the candle-lighting tradition alive, but in doing so, she places her brilliant husband Rafel Valls, a computer scientist, at risk of academic excommunication. Out of respect for Leonor’s sense of tradition and Rafel’s Chueta roots, they move to Israel.

In Israel, Rafel joins the famed Army Intelligence Unit 8200, where he is assigned the “Hezakiah project,” designed “to infiltrate the computer systems of all incoming missiles—whether launched from Iran or Lebanon or Gaza.” His section head, Avi Chang, is an observant Chinese convert to Judaism whose family was murdered in China. Though Chang seems sincere, he goes AWOL at the most crucial moment, just as the defense system is activated. Chang emerges as story’s most intriguing character.

Yael Habani, a beautiful, formally Orthodox woman and computer science genius, heads the Samson Project with fierce determination. In competition with the Hezikiah Project, her mission is to blow up the world if the Hezakiah project fails. Yael has nothing to lose: she was the sole survivor of a terrorist attack in which Arabs entered her home and murdered her entire family.

Will Rafel Valls succeed in protecting Israel by stopping incoming missiles, or will Yael Habani press the button to end the world? Will Armageddon 2029 come to pass?

Judith Friedman Rosen
CUNY Graduate School