Various reasons were cited by reviewers as to why '' Exodus '' was so well received . Among them was the fact that the book , a historical novel , came out ten years after the widely-publicized Exodus Affair , which involved a ship named '' SS Exodus '' , from which the book took its title . In 1947 the British seized the ship as it was about to cross into the territorial waters of Palestine and deported all its passengers , Jewish refugees trying to immigrate illegally , many of them Holocaust survivors , back to Europe . When it came out , Uris 's book aroused the public 's interest in the fate of that ship and its passengers
Holocaust survivors
The Holocaust
Exodus (Uris novel)