Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip - Gush Katif motivated me to write my debut historic novel, GRAINS OF SAND: THE FALL OF NEVE DEKALIM. I felt an urge to set down on paper, blue ink on white pages, what I was experiencing. I hope that my book will enable people to understand what we, the people of Gush Katif, went through. I hope to put a human face on what have been just facts, numbers. And I hope that the person reading my novel will, for a few hours, travel beyond time and beyond location - into my Gush Katif.