First of all I want to thank the author and publisher for making an Advance Reader Copy of this book available to me for a review. The book will be released on May 1, 2016. Go to your favorite book distributor and reserve a copy.
This is quite frankly one of the best historical novels that
I have ever read. I think what makes this so good is that Tessa Afshar was born
in Iran, grew up in a nominal Muslim Family and later moved to the West and
came to know Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior.
She brings a very fresh look at Biblical stories and also
brings a great understanding of Anthropology and Sociology in regards to the
Biblical Times when Jesus Christ walked the shores of Galilee.
In this story we trace the life of a young girl, Elianna,
and her life with her Jewish family in Roman Occupied Jerusalem. She and her
family must deal with the hardship of heavy taxation, bribes, thieves and the
general hardships that the Jewish Religion placed on their people in regards to
customs, laws, sacrifices, etc.
Elianna has a tragic situation in her young life when she
takes her brother to a hillside to look at the flowers and has the unfortunate
issue of his being stung by a bee and discovering (although she wouldn’t know
this) that he would go into anaphylactic shock from an allergic reaction. He
dies and sets the course of her life on a path of feeling rejection from her
father instead of love and acceptance.
The story weaves through her young life, through meeting
Lydia the dye maker of the New Testament and how she works to bring about
success to her families business while hiding the fact that she is the driving
force, because Jews would never buy from a woman.
At first I thought this was going to turn into a so / so
romantic period piece, but then it takes a turn at a little over the halfway
mark. This turn sets the course of the whole story and ties it into a Biblical
Character that you will be familiar with from the New Testament.
I don’t want to divulge who the individual is because it
kind of would be a spoiler to the first part of the book. But I think you will
like where Tessa Afshar takes the story.
This book would truly be great for a church book club or
even better as a dialogue starter for the Gospel with someone who doesn’t know
Christ or is a bit turned off by religion.
Enjoy!
