A deeply thoughtful tale that skillfully depicts the origins of Judaic tradition.
In this historical novel set in 3500 B.C.E., a Bedouin tribesman travels to Sumer in search of a new god.
Tiras grows up as part of a Bedouin tribe in central Saudi Arabia worshipping Martu, the bull god, an unmerciful master who exacts terrible sacrifices as punishment for even minor transgressions. Always inquisitive and even skeptical as a child, Tiras questions the tribe’s allegiance to such a vengeful god, a defiance that fatefully leads to tragedy. When he angers the tribe’s priest, Abu-Summu, Tiras’ daughter, Shallah, is summarily sentenced to a beating so vicious it kills her. Utterly despondent, Tiras blames himself for Shallah’s death, and when he hears of gentler gods in Sumer, he travels there to learn more. He is driven by a need to find a god superior to Martu but also by a “hunger for knowledge of the world.” There, he meets Mah Ummia, a physician and scholar happy to teach Tiras about his own religion, one in which the gods resemble men and not beasts, show pity toward the suffering, and promise a new life after death in paradise. Tiras returns home, eager to proselytize about “a powerful new god, El, who’d conquered all the other gods.” The traveler is excited about his new discoveries, but he meets fierce resistance, particularly from Abu-Summu. Tiras even fears punishment from Martu: “But how to tell his tribe about those gods? Surely Martu would grow jealous and demand terrible retribution. Dare he risk his family’s life to help his people?”
Miller deftly explores a historical possibility in literary terms—the emergence of Judaism out of contact between Bedouin Arabs and Sumerians. The author intelligently traces a potential theological genealogy, a captivating and nuanced account of how one religion emerges out of the influence of another. Tiras is first motivated by personal grief but then by curiosity and astonishment, a remarkable amalgam of practical and theoretical concerns, and a moral attraction to more than just gods: “Tiras listened intently, his eyes squinting in surprise. The Sumerian gods were smiling? Gentle? No human sacrifice? How had the Sumerians learned to attract such sympathetic gods?” Eventually, with the help of Tiras’ sons, a new mythology is born, one in which the protagonist is transformed from a grieving father into a prophet heralding a new faith. Miller doesn’t allow the historical elements of the story to overwhelm the dramatic ones—the plot is by turns as gripping as it is moving. Nonetheless, this is a historically impressive work, and it is precisely this authenticity that is the book’s principal strength. The author’s research is admirably rigorous—painstakingly meticulous as well as astonishingly expansive in scope. While she permits herself some considerable artistic license, especially given the timeline of this religious transmission—“the time period in the novel has been compressed to spread events over several generations rather than several millennia”—none of that literary latitude diminishes the work’s dramatic or historical power.
A deeply thoughtful tale that skillfully depicts the origins of Judaic tradition.Pub Date: April 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4808-8444-1
Page Count: 346
Publisher: Archway Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A vivid, exciting page-turner from one of our most interesting authors of historical fiction.
When a man accused of rape turns up dead, an Early American town seeks justice amid rumors and controversy.
Lawhon’s fifth work of historical fiction is inspired by the true story and diaries of midwife Martha Ballard of Hallowell, Maine, a character she brings to life brilliantly here. As Martha tells her patient in an opening chapter set in 1789, “You need not fear….In all my years attending women in childbirth, I have never lost a mother.” This track record grows in numerous compelling scenes of labor and delivery, particularly one in which Martha has to clean up after the mistakes of a pompous doctor educated at Harvard, one of her nemeses in a town that roils with gossip and disrespect for women’s abilities. Supposedly, the only time a midwife can testify in court is regarding paternity when a woman gives birth out of wedlock—but Martha also takes the witness stand in the rape case against a dead man named Joshua Burgess and his living friend Col. Joseph North, whose role as judge in local court proceedings has made the victim, Rebecca Foster, reluctant to make her complaint public. Further complications are numerous: North has control over the Ballard family's lease on their property; Rebecca is carrying the child of one of her rapists; Martha’s son was seen fighting with Joshua Burgess on the day of his death. Lawhon weaves all this into a richly satisfying drama that moves suspensefully between childbed, courtroom, and the banks of the Kennebec River. The undimmed romance between 40-something Martha and her husband, Ephraim, adds a racy flair to the proceedings. Knowing how rare the quality of their relationship is sharpens the intensity of Martha’s gaze as she watches the romantic lives of her grown children unfold. As she did with Nancy Wake in Code Name Hélène (2020), Lawhon creates a stirring portrait of a real-life heroine and, as in all her books, includes an endnote with detailed background.
A vivid, exciting page-turner from one of our most interesting authors of historical fiction.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780385546874
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
A sugarcoated take on midcentury suburbia.
A lively and unabashedly sentimental novel examines the impact of feminism on four upper-middle-class white women in a suburb of Washington, D.C., in 1963.
Transplanted Ohioan Margaret Ryan—married to an accountant, raising three young children, and decidedly at loose ends—decides to recruit a few other housewives to form a book club. She’s thinking A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, but a new friend, artistic Charlotte Gustafson, suggests Betty Friedan’s brand-new The Feminine Mystique. They’re joined by young Bitsy Cobb, who aspired to be a veterinarian but married one instead, and Vivian Buschetti, a former Army nurse now pregnant with her seventh child. The Bettys, as they christen themselves, decide to meet monthly to read feminist books, and with their encouragement of each other, their lives begin to change: Margaret starts writing a column for a women’s magazine; Viv goes back to work as a nurse; Charlotte and Bitsy face up to problems with demanding and philandering husbands and find new careers of their own. The story takes in real-life figures like the Washington Post’s Katharine Graham and touches on many of the tumultuous political events of 1963. Bostwick treats her characters with generosity and a heavy dose of wish-fulfillment, taking satisfying revenge on the wicked and solving longstanding problems with a few well-placed words, even showing empathy for the more well-meaning of the husbands. As historical fiction, the novel is hampered by its rosy optimism, but its take on the many micro- and macroaggressions experienced by women of the era is sound and eye-opening. Although Friedan might raise an eyebrow at the use her book’s been put to, readers will cheer for Bostwick’s spunky characters.
A sugarcoated take on midcentury suburbia.Pub Date: April 22, 2025
ISBN: 9781400344741
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Harper Muse
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
