Sara Dowse is a fine observer of politics and power. Her new novel, As the Lonely Fly, traverses three continents over fifty years and contains a multitude of characters, but its focus is honed in on three sisters, of sorts. While Chekhov’s play of that name is typified by waiting, Dowse’s story is of continuous flux and upheaval. Clara-later-Chava, Manya-later-Marion, and Zipporah flee from Ukraine’s pogrom-soaked landscape to markedly different lands of promise; America and Palestine – known to them as Eretz Israel, the longed for Land of Israel.