The latest novel from Toronto author and professor Nicholas Maes is a story of good and evil played out in shades of grey, offering readers something weightier than the average young adult fare.

The theme of battle – be it personal, patriotic, religious, or athletic – permeates the tale. In Jerusalem in the summer of 2006, tensions between the Israeli army and Arab forces are boiling over. In the midst of this turmoil, a pair of 15-year-old boys are entangled in their own personal struggles. Avi Greenbaum is Jewish, Moussa Shakir Muslim. Both are preparing for manhood and have family members risking their lives in combat. Inwardly, though, both question their own fortitude when it comes to joining the fight themselves. When Avi’s soccer team faces Moussa’s in a series of matches throughout the volatile summer, more than team pride is at stake.

The subject matter explored in Crescent Star is a far cry from Maes’s previous YA offering, the fantasy-tinged Laughing Wolf, and it possesses a grit and realism that intrigues from the start. The novel moves forward with the precision of the soldiers depicted within its pages, and there is much headline-derived fighting and bloodshed.

Maes juxtaposes his characters’ points of view and allows them to act as guides for younger readers who may not be familiar with the history of the conflict. It becomes clear very quickly that not every war is black and white, and that sometimes solutions are as difficult to grasp as clouds of smoke.

Crescent Star paints a vivid portrait of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and does so in a fair and sympathetic way. At the same time, both Avi and Moussa are depicted as typical questioning teens, unsure if the path their parents have laid out is right for them. The only difference is, instead of fighting their parents for more personal freedom at home, they’re preparing to wage war in the streets.