Main Characters in THE VASE

Unlike KILLER OF KILLERS, my first novel, (yet to be published) which has only one main character, Trent Smith, the greatest martial artist in the world, THE VASE revolves around several main characters.

Today, I’ll talk about Muhsin Muhabi and his son, Naji, because the story begins with them. Muhsin is a hard-working Palestinian who makes a meager living as a potter in the old city market of modern day Nazareth. He’s a Muslim, as Muslims are the majority in Nazareth, but Muhsin doesn’t go to the mosques or bow down at the call for prayer. He knows his heritage, and knows his place in the world. For him, his place is with his son, Naji, a fourteen-year old boy who knows only the pottery shop, since he doesn’t go to school, and their life is in Nazareth, where Muhsin and Naji were born.

Despite the Palestinian unrest in Israel, Muhsin doesn’t protest, nor does he partake in riots or demonstrations, or pickets, or anything that brings any attention to him. All he wants to do is make vases, pots, and amphorae to sell in the market and take care of Naji. He’s a single father, because his wife Sanya had left him and Naji three years prior after their first born son, Ali, was killed by IDF soldiers during what came to be known as the Ramadan Rebellion. Sanya is not Palestinian. She’s Syrian and she returned to her parents in Syria to escape the strife she came to know in Israel.

Naji, like any fourteen year-old boy, is growing fast and is taken by the unrest that surrounds him. He is easily influenced, and much of that influence is from the wrong corners of the town. He questions his father’s simple ways, and hates his mother, Sanya, when she returns to Nazareth to be reunited with her family.

Once they are together again, all they want is to be left alone and be a happy family. Unfortunately for them, others make for a difficult intrusion into their lives, mainly the terrorists who are recruiting Naji to partake in a plot to assassinate the Pope and Israeli prime minister.

But Mushin, Sanya, and Naji are good people. An innocent family caught up in the conflict, and they respond, I believe, as any good family would. One thing that really does impact their circumstances is the very old vase that Muhsin has kept in his basement. It's part of a collection that belonged to his father. You'll have to read the book to find out more about that.

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about Professor Hiram Weiss.