Ariel Sharon has been in an apparently irreversible coma since January, when he suffered a stroke that made it necessary to place him on life-support and eventually remove him from office as prime minister of Israel.

In “Ariel Sharon: A Life” (Random House, $29.95), Israeli journalists Nir Hefez and Gadi Bloom offer an evenhanded biography of the warrior and politician born Arik Scheinerman and given his famous “nom de guerre” by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, one of Israel’s founding fathers.

Sharon was born in 1928 to educated Russian immigrants on a small, hardscrabble kibbutz. His life as farmer, soldier and statesman would, like his nation’s politics, experience harrowing ups and downs.

Young Arik helped his parents eke out a living in an atmosphere of hardship and hostility amid unfriendly neighbors.

Arik grew up at a time when Palestine was ruled by the British and there was all sorts of social and political unrest across the land. At 10, he joined a Zionist youth movement, where his aptitude for leadership was soon noticed.

When World War II began, he joined the paramilitary youth brigade Gadna, and later the Haganah, the principal Labor-Zionist militia. He trained hard to learn the art and theories of combat.

He began to show a stubbornness that often put him at odds with his superiors. He refused orders he disagreed with, an aspect of his character that would become legendary in his ensuing military and political life.

The biographers examine his progress through the ranks of the Israel Defense Force and in the world of politics and government. Sharon’s interaction with the major figures of Israeli public life are well-chronicled; the book richly details his friendships, enmities and disagreements, and his successes and failures.

The intricacies of Israeli politics are so vast that they can be difficult to follow. However, they do provide a picture of their disorderly, no-holds-barred nature.

This biography does not gloss over the many episodes that show Sharon in unfavorable light. But it also is straightforward in detailing his many deeds of merit.