A good choice for readers who love historical tales of strong-willed women.
Strutin’s (History Hikes of the Smokies, 2003, etc.) novel tells the story of a minor character from the biblical Book of Exodus who fights for justice.
Sixteen-year-old Noa and her four sisters, Milcah, Malah, Hoglah, and Tirzah, are spirited young women making the journey with their elderly parents from Egypt to the prophesied land of their fathers. They’re following Moses, but they’ve been waiting for months for him to come down from the top of a nearby mountain, where he’s been receiving new laws from God. In the meantime, groups of men among them start to make laws for themselves, or seek out idols to help them on their journey. After a misunderstanding about some man-made rules, Noa’s father, Zelophechad, is stoned to death. Without him, and without any brothers, Noa and her sisters aren’t guaranteed a plot of land when the caravan of pilgrims reaches its destination. Noa is determined to achieve justice for her family and begins to plot ways to convince judges of their case. In the meantime, there are alliances to be made through marriage, a business to maintain, and an aging mother to care for. With great attention to detail, Strutin takes these obscure characters—who are mentioned in only three Bible verses—and spins out an in-depth account of the joys and hardships of womanhood in the ancient world. She uses each of the sisters to portray a different stage of womanly growth, from the tomboyish 8-year-old Tirzah to awkward teenager Hoglah to the eldest three, whose thoughts are of money, matrimony, and everything that comes with them. It will certainly help a prospective reader to be familiar with the plot of the Book of Exodus, at least in vague terms. That said, there’s a great deal of interpersonal drama and intrigue that will keep even nonreligious readers engaged in the tale of Noa’s sheepherding family.
A good choice for readers who love historical tales of strong-willed women.Pub Date: April 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-945805-74-5
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Bedazzled Ink
Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A deeply satisfying novel, both sensuously vivid and remarkably poignant.
Norwegian novelist Jacobsen folds a quietly powerful coming-of-age story into a rendition of daily life on one of Norway’s rural islands a hundred years ago in a novel that was shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize.
Ingrid Barrøy, her father, Hans, mother, Maria, grandfather Martin, and slightly addled aunt Barbro are the owners and sole inhabitants of Barrøy Island, one of numerous small family-owned islands in an area of Norway barely touched by the outside world. The novel follows Ingrid from age 3 through a carefree early childhood of endless small chores, simple pleasures, and unquestioned familial love into her more ambivalent adolescence attending school off the island and becoming aware of the outside world, then finally into young womanhood when she must make difficult choices. Readers will share Ingrid’s adoration of her father, whose sense of responsibility conflicts with his romantic nature. He adores Maria, despite what he calls her “la-di-da” ways, and is devoted to Ingrid. Twice he finds work on the mainland for his sister, Barbro, but, afraid she’ll be unhappy, he brings her home both times. Rooted to the land where he farms and tied to the sea where he fishes, Hans struggles to maintain his family’s hardscrabble existence on an island where every repair is a struggle against the elements. But his efforts are Sisyphean. Life as a Barrøy on Barrøy remains precarious. Changes do occur in men’s and women’s roles, reflected in part by who gets a literal chair to sit on at meals, while world crises—a war, Sweden’s financial troubles—have unexpected impact. Yet the drama here occurs in small increments, season by season, following nature’s rhythm through deaths and births, moments of joy and deep sorrow. The translator’s decision to use roughly translated phrases in conversation—i.e., “Tha’s goen’ nohvar” for "You’re going nowhere")—slows the reading down at first but ends up drawing readers more deeply into the world of Barrøy and its prickly, intensely alive inhabitants.
A deeply satisfying novel, both sensuously vivid and remarkably poignant.Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77196-319-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Biblioasis
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
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