The Wire-Walker
Published: September 2025, Regal House Publishing
ISBN-13: 978-1646035809
Availability: Regal House Publishing | Bookworks | Organic Books | Pilsen Community Books
In the Balata Refugee Camp in Nablus, Palestine, sixteen-year-old Amal Tuqan finds her escape in tightrope walking. Living in an alley so narrow that “ the walls hold their breath,” she practices tirelessly on thin wires and slippery rebar. Her extraordinary talent leads her to Tel Aviv in the summer of 2019, where she joins The Flying Kids, a circus that brings together Israeli and Palestinian children. There, she forms a deep friendship with Tali Glazman, a Jewish Israeli juggler, and they discover they share a painful bond: both have lost their fathers to violence. As their friendship defies the deep-seated animosities that divide them, The Wire-Walker reveals more than just a tale of friendship; it is a raw and powerful commentary on the daily struggles faced by Amal and her community in the occupied West Bank. Set against the backdrop of 2019-2020, this poignant tale serves as a prequel to the struggles that have unfolded since, highlighting the enduring spirit of youth amidst conflict.
Praise for The Wire-Walker
“James Janko is a marvelous writer whose compassionate imagination spans worlds. The wire he walks on trembles with humanity and hope––it is not strung only between two peoples [Palestinians and Israelis], but between all of us who care about justice in the wider world and safety for all human beings. This humane story of love, care, and dreaming could not be more timely.”
—Naomi Shihab Nye, author of Habibi
“The Wire-Walker is both magical and honest. As a Palestinian from Nablus, I appreciate the accuracy of the setting, plot and characters specifically, and more generally the way the occupation affects the lives of Palestinians, especially refugees, both directly and indirectly.”
—Mahmoud Masri, Founder of the (actual) Nablus Circus School
“Amal [the narrator of The Wire-Walker] is Palestine’s Anne Frank. Her presence in the world will make it better. The ending is breath-taking.”
—Maxine Hong Kingston, author of The Woman Warrior
“Creation means, bringing to life, and indeed these characters, particularly Amal Tuqan, are living, vital and wise and will be with the reader, as fine literature makes possible, for all time. May I dare to confirm, as the novel implies, that Amal Tuqan and Anne Frank would be companions of the heart if they had known each other? Here I am speaking of Amal as if she is alive, because she is.”
—Deena Metzger, author of What Dinah Thought, The Other Hand, and La Negra y Blanca, winner of Oakland Pen Award for Literature
“A poetic combination of beauty and horror, disillusionment and hope. This novel provides an unforgettable perspective to a centuries-old conflict. I hope to read more novels from this author, a singular voice, a remarkable talent.”
—Gabriel Bump, author of Everywhere You Don’t Belong
“The Wire-Walker is so moving and the flow so good, I had a hard time putting it down. Janko did an absolutely amazing job as a writer.”
—Nili Belkind, Jaffa, Israel Ethnomusicologist and author of Music in Conflict: Palestine, Israel, and the Politics of Aesthetic Production
“Sometimes words are worlds,” says the narrator of James Janko’s novel, The Wire Walker. Indeed, I was astounded by the fully realized worlds that Janko imagines through the words of his female teenage narrator, Amal, a Palestinian wire-walker struggling to carve out a meaningful existence in a West Bank refugee camp. The plot, which involves the mysterious fate of Amal’s father, unfolds as a thriller in the hands of a most literary writer.”
—Andrew Furman, author of The World That We Are
“Janko’s book makes a strong contribution to the trove of literature that has tried to come to terms with the seemingly eternal conflict of a troubled land. It is a powerful book, by turns warm and wrenching.”
—Charles Hansmann, author of Skylighting