#standalones – Avonna Loves Genres

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: DOG and The Girl Who Rode the White Lion by Yishay Ishi Ron

DOG and The Girl Who Rode the White Lion by Yishay Ishi Ron are very powerful novels. Both these novels are mirrored in realistic events including October 7th. They have mystery, good versus evil, revenge and resolution, and are page turners that both inform and entertain.

Elise’s Thoughts

DOG is a poignant and unflinching exploration of the search for meaning after the wreckage of war, told through the eyes of an Israeli combat officer returning from Gaza. Haunted by trauma, he spirals into heroin addiction, finding himself among Tel Aviv’s community of misfit junkies—until a stray dog enters his life and becomes a beacon of hope, guiding him through a transformative journey marked by despair, resilience, and ultimately hope for salvation.

Beyond its deeply personal narrative, DOG offers a raw and immersive examination of PTSD’s mechanisms— how extreme stress, moral injury, and the experience of combat can rewire the brain, making a return to civilian life seem nearly impossible. With sharp social critique and profound emotional depth, the novel sheds light on invisible wounds and those who carry them, while illustrating the therapeutic power of a simple soulful connection, and how the path to redemption can be illuminated in the most unexpected of ways.

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Elise’s Thoughts

The Girl Who Rode the White Lion shows the cruelty of the Nazi SS. It takes place in two timelines. The first begins in the city of Darmstadt, Germany, on November 9, 1938, during Kristallnacht, and follows the plight of the young girl Sarah Frank and her escape from the SS officer, Hauptsturmführer Hubert Zimmer. She finds refuge in the marvelous circus of Adolf Frey. Adolf, the circus owner and famous lion trainer, is married to Louis, a Jewish French
woman and elephant trainer. The circus has already committed to performances in German cities, but Adolf’s plans are disrupted when the SS officer, searching for Sarah, shows no intention of giving up.

The second timeline of the book takes place in New York City, on January 6, 1957, when Mark Spencer, a veterinarian at the Central Park Zoo, performs a post-mortem examination on a rare white lion named Christmas, and discovers an SS ring made of silver inside its stomach. The mystery of the story has Mark wondering about the ring and searching for clues that has him meet Sarah in Israel.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: The book, DOG, delves into PTSD; can you elaborate on this issue?

Yishay Ishi Ron: Its theme is the horror of the war and what happens when the war is over. A lot of the public attention in Israel now is the after effects of October 7^th because so many civilians and soldiers experienced severe PTSD. Some people say that at least one fourth of the population in Israel now has it. Of course, you can see it with soldiers committing suicide, so many, something like 140 since October 7th, and those are only the formal numbers. And of course, survivors, their families, and those injured also have PTSD. Since October 7th, those with PTSD have more than doubled because they were all traumatized. They remember the memories from October 7^th, and the anti-Semitism is not helping.

EC: The book, DOG, does it relate to October 7^th?

YIR: Although it was written before October 7^th, yes. Everybody in Israel knows a family that had a member kidnapped or injured or killed or their son or daughter were killed in the war. PTSD is so common now, and I think that when people read DOG, they should understand deep in their hearts what it means to have PTSD and how it can pull them easily from being a functional normal person to someone that cannot deal with life. They are so haunted by what they’ve seen or what they heard. So, this is the connection to October 7.

EC: In DOG you have a dedication that reads, “To the combatants whose eyes have seen things that their minds refuse to forget.” Does this apply to those who saw the horrific acts against the victims on October 7^th?

YIR: I’m a PTSD veteran, and I believe that, for many Israelis, veterans, all Israel was traumatized very deeply. Even for me as a veteran I suffered, because I remember those days as very, very traumatic. And I wasn’t there, but it was enough to watch the news and to hear the people who had been there. I remember in my therapy sessions that I was just crying. I couldn’t even deal with my PTSD because I was so traumatized by what happened to us. And I feel that in a way that is how it is with most Israelis. They can’t sleep. It was horrific, what they saw and who were there and what they had to deal with.

EC: What do you want to say about DOG?

YIR: It’s not about a war, but it’s about what happens when the war is over. What happened to soldiers and to heroes and to people that experience it. As a PTSD survivor, I started to write DOG before I knew I had PTSD. For years I suffered from PTSD and its many manifestations. I couldn’t admit to myself that I’m suffering from PTSD because I did not want to be perceived as weak. So, I started to write DOG a few years before my psychological collapse. I had a breakdown during COVID after my team had a reunion and I met the soldier, a friend of mine, who I accidentally shot during the combat operation. I really collapsed mentally. And that was the first time I really admitted to myself that I had PTSD. I couldn’t work, I didn’t eat, I didn’t sleep. It was very hard for me, very difficult times, so my psychiatrist and my therapist told me ‘You are a writer, go write it to help you to process everything.’ So, I came back to DOG and I started to rewrite it. I wanted to make it more interesting so I wrote it as a novel. I think it’s more reachable for people but also to experience from Geller, my protagonist, his perspective as a Commando officer.

EC: Your other book, The Girl Who Rode the White Lion; how did you get the idea for the story?

YIR: I came upon it many years ago, maybe 10 to 15 years ago, A Jewish acrobat named Irene Danner pleaded for those in the circus to hide her. They accepted to hide her, to give her a job and a new identity. And later, they also took in her sister and grandma. They hid two other families, which was very, very risky for them, because the SS and the Gestapo used to check up on the circus looking for Jews. So, it was very, very dangerous for them, but they decided to do this. As an author I was intrigued by the atmosphere of the circus. I mean, in this insane place that Europe became, and especially Germany, such a place of horrors and of drama and of craziness of what happened. So, it really mesmerized me. I couldn’t get it out of my head and I decided to write the story, but I didn’t want to write the biography so I wrote a fiction novel that deals with this circus, and what happened.

EC: There is a quote in the book that can also refer to today with anti-Semitism. Can you comment?

YIR: You are referring to, ‘The Nazis taught us to stand up for ourselves. They taught us that no one in the world would volunteer to save a Jew.’ On the contrary, many would step up to kill a Jew just for fun. I think that many a Jew was shocked that their non-Jewish friends looked the other way after October 7^th. I was not very surprised. Nothing changed. From the beginning of today’s time, and when Christianity and Islam came, Jews were persecuted, everywhere in the world, in all times.

EC: How would you describe the female protagonist, Sarah?

YIR: She did not believe in love and attachment. She’s quiet, vulnerable and has PTSD. She drinks a lot. She disassociates from herself when she drinks. She can have unattachable sex, but she cannot have long-term relationships because everyone she counted on was killed, was taken from her, and she even says it to Mark Spencer. She tells him that everyone that comes near her is dead, is killed. She’s seen a man being murdered, her house being destroyed, and her father being taken to a concentration camp and killed. She also saw her new parents being killed in Germany during a bombing and animals also killed. So, it’s very, very, very traumatic for her. And I think that she’s has classic PTSD

EC: How would you describe Mark, the male lead?

YIR: He was born with a silver spoon. In the beginning, he is a very successful American, a peacock. He likes to show off. He likes to have many girlfriends, and he cannot stay with one because he feels that he is the alpha man.

EC: What about the relationship between Mark and Sarah?

YIR: When he falls for Sarah, it’s not only because she’s beautiful because he had many beautiful women before her. When he meets with Sarah, he has a girlfriend in New York who is very beautiful. I think he falls for her because he falls for her honesty and for the feelings and pain that she carries. Like a lot of us, he had sympathy with someone who was suffering. He went on a journey that changes from this person as not being much more sensitive to being sensitive of what happened to the Jews. Then suddenly he finds himself understanding that there is anti-Semitism around. So basically, I think he starts the book as a peacock and finishes it as someone who is much more sensitive and connected to the pain in Sarah.

EC: What do you think the role of the lion was in your story?

YIR: It’s a symbol. It’s a symbol for Jews for strength and for courage. My protagonist, Sarah, found the courage to deal with the situation. I mean, the lion was so frightening, but when she understood the situation, that the real beast is the Nazis, and compared to them, the lion suddenly is not so frightening to her. She understands suddenly that if she does not succeed in riding the lion, she will be dead and everyone she loves will be dead. So, this was the symbol she had to overcome her deepest fears.

EC: How would you describe the Nazi SS Zimmerman?

YIR: He has an inferiority complex, cruel, a control freak, a predator, and a sadist. I saw him in my mind as a combination of Joseph Goebbels and Adolf Eichmann, who were both pathetic, weak physically, and damaged people. So, it was very important for me to show this aspect that the master race was not always such a master race. He became a classic villain, because he’s such a weak person. His hatred for the Jews is based on jealousy of Sarah’s family. His childhood friend was an officer during WWI in the army, and later became a doctor, had a beautiful wife, and a beautiful home, and they were rich. Zimmerman was unsuccessful in his prior life, and became successful as a Nazi, only because he was so extreme and full of hate. He was jealous of the Jews.

EC: What was the importance of the ring found in the lion’s stomach?

YIR: I read about the Nazi rings, which were given as a present by Himmler to officers in the SS. And the rings were more important than the officers themselves, meaning if an officer was killed, the commands were to bring back the ring. Or when an officer was dead by nature or by accident or by battlefield, the ring had to be brought back to Himmler. It was a gift only to the time the officer was alive. The ring belonged to the SS, and it was a symbol. So, when I looked for a symbol to connect Sarah, to the SS, to the lion, and to Mark Spencer, it was like suddenly as I saw it as a vision that Mark will find the ring in the lion’s stomach.

EC: Next book?

YIR: It is titled, Jacob the Birdman. It’s about this guy that was feeling that all his life he was a bird. And, suddenly in the park, in Tel Aviv, he goes to the park and meets a strange man that encourages him to take out the bird inside of him and to become a bird. It’s very Salvador Dali, very dreamy, like.

THANK YOU!!

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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.

Friday Feature Author Interview #2 with Elise Cooper: Only Cry for the Living and Afghanistan by Hollie S. McKay

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Hollie S. McKay is an investigative and international affairs/war journalist who has written two non-fiction books, Only Cry for The Living and Afghanistan and a novel, Dictator’s Wife. She has put her life on the line as she worked on the frontlines of several major war zones including in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. Her books cover terrorism, and crimes against humanity.

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Book Description

Only once in a lifetime does a war so brutal erupt. A war that becomes an official genocide, causes millions to run from their homes, compels the slaughtering of thousands in the most horrific of ways, and inspires terrorist attacks to transpire across the world.

That is the chilling legacy of the ISIS onslaught, and Only Cry for the Living takes a profoundly personal, unprecedented dive into one of the most brutal terrorist organizations in the world.

Journalist Hollie S. McKay offers a raw, on-the-ground journey chronicling the rise of ISIS in Iraq—exposing the group’s vast impact and how and why it sought to wage terror on civilians in a desperate attempt to create an antiquated “caliphate.”

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Elise’s Thoughts

Only Cry for The Living takes readers on a journey of ISIS as it commits torture, rape, murder, and genocide. McKay provides a profoundly personal insight into the rise of ISIS in Iraq, exposing the desperate pursuit of a barbaric “caliphate” at the expense of innocent lives.

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Book Description

Overnight, Afghanistan dramatically transformed. One chapter – a twenty-year epoch heralded by the attacks of September 11, the U.S. invasion and propping up an ailing government – shuttered on August 15, 2021. Another entirely new – albeit old – chapter flipped open under the stringent ruling of the Taliban.

Officially termed the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, it’s a government that triggers immense fear among the population, having reigned with an iron fist pre-9/11 and waged a brutal insurgency from the mountaintops that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Afghans and foreigners.

Veteran war reporters – writer Hollie McKay and photographer Jake Simkin – walk you through the fall of the U.S. and the rise of the Taliban, drawing you into the minds of the new regime and into the hearts of the Afghanistan people.

“Afghanistan: The End of the U.S. Footprint and the Rise of the Taliban Rule” is a chilling bloody, yet beautiful visual expedition through one of the most magical yet wounded parcels of the planet. It is a place where poppies grow wild and men in the mountains cradle guns like children. It’s a place where kites fly high, and everyone has a war story, even though most never chose to go to war.

Welcome to Afghanistan after the cataclysmic fall. The band-aid over the bullet wound has been ripped off, and “Afghanistan” will guide you into the maze of dust, debris and delicacy the way no journalistic endeavor has done before.

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Elise’s Thoughts

Afghanistan, written by McKay with the photographs of Jake Simkin, delves into the fall of the U.S. and the rise of the Taliban, including how women lost any rights gained while the Americans were there.

Both books interviewed those who have been the perpetrators and the victims that describe the true horrors of what happened. The best summary is from Jocko Willink, a retired Navy SEAL, “She gives us all a better understanding of war and human nature.”

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: Can you explain your quote about how the rule of law is lost in a war zone?

Hollie S. McKay: In the book on Afghanistan, I have this quote. “The budding and innocent always bear the brunt of war in its height and aftermath.” In the book on ISIS I have this quote, “If only the victims could tell the world what was happening to them, somehow it would all change the world.” These quotes emphasized how those in these situations feel incredibly powerless with a sense of injustice. Unfortunately, the perpetrators never have any accountability. I think telling the victims stories offers a sense of justice that they will never receive from the courts. I am hoping that people might understand on a microlevel what happened and maybe it will spur action.

EC: I wonder where the feminists are with all three brutal attacks on women by Hamas on October 7^th, what the Taliban has done in Afghanistan, or ISIS in Iraq. Please comment.

HSM: Women were raped, tortured, and had their freedoms taken away. There is an overarching narrative where people do not want to be perceived of being derogatory to a different culture. There are situations in life, these being one of them, where people need to culturally offend for any change to a happen. Women should not be MIA but should speak out about any cultural practices that are inherently wrong. More than 150 years ago there was a practice in Hinduism that was called SAATI. Basically, if the men did something wrong or died for whatever reason, they would burn the wives under the belief her life was meaningless without a husband. When the Brits came into India, they said they would kill anyone who practiced this and put a stop to it. My point being that people must step up. Another example, in Afghanistan, had little boys taken, dressed up as girls, and raped. It was a real mistake that the US did not clamp down on this practice. In fact, in 2014/15 a Green Beret was court martialed because he beat up an Afghan police commander he found doing it. He went through a trial and was discharged. That never should have happened. Eventually the charges were dropped and the decision reversed after public outcry. People need to speak out when they know something is inherently wrong, and that is just what he did.

EC: Why do you think the Taliban and ISIS allowed you to interview people and observe?

HSM: I was not treated like ‘their women.’ They recognize I was a western woman that has a different lifestyle and beliefs. Obviously, I was not a man. It was an arbitrary middle ground, which is quite advantageous in these places. I could go and sit with the men but also could sit with the women, which my male colleagues cannot do. In a way I had access others did not because of the middle ground.

EC: What about the Kurd fighters who are women?

HSM: It is a fascinating story. The PKK fought against Turkey but also ISIS. They have a Marxist point of view. They feel women and men are equal in the way that they fight. There are others like the Sun Ladies in Iraq where thousands were taken and used as sex slaves or killed. A number managed to escape but there are still a number still missing. A lot of those women joined the fight because they felt they could not rely on anyone else for their protection. Their motivation was to protect themselves. Generally, the Kurds have more of an open mind then other Sunni Muslims in that region. Another motivation was that these women knew that the extremists believed if they were killed by a woman they would not go to paradise. This put an extra layer of fear to the ISIS terrorists.

EC: What about the US pull out in Afghanistan?

HSM: In Afghanistan a lot of women cannot be educated anymore. A large amount of the poverty level is represented by women. Currently, women have no rights to do anything. Women who want freedom and education, feel a sense of abandonment. At some point there was needed a significant draw down by the American forces. What was frustrating was to see the Afghan Army throw down the weapons and give up the fight considering the training they had. During the evacuation there were able bodied muscular strength men filling the planes because they pushed through that gate above women and children. The evacuation did not need to happen the way it happened.

EC: Does Hamas, ISIS and the Taliban have the same goals?

HSM: Hamas relies on Iran for funding. The Taliban are a little more on their own without the global funding that Hamas has. Their objectives are different. The Taliban is focused on their own border while Hamas wants to eliminate Israel. In terms of extremism both have a Sharia Law system that is brutal. ISIS has the objective to broaden their Caliphate.

EC: What do you want readers to get out of the books?

HSM: I want people to care about everything happening. But human nature has a limit to deal with all the tragedy in the world and the Middle East region. People also get jaded. I wanted to find the micro stories that can tell a micro picture that people can relate to on a personal level. Statistics and numbers can be very desensitizing. People can understand the conflict in a broader way. I wanted to put the human face to the number. It is impossible for Americans to live in a bubble. It is important to understand the way the enemy thinks and the way they see the world.

EC: Are you writing another book?

HSM: I have a book with my agent delving into mothers in war, in crisis, and in conflict. It expanded twelve different countries from Yemen, El Salvador, Taiwan, Syria, North Korea, and Israel.

THANK YOU!!

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