Biblical Fiction with a Jewish Twist
Explore captivating biblical fiction books with a unique Jewish twist. Discover fresh perspectives on ancient stories, blending faith, history, and imagination in these thought-provoking reads.
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Rebekah
by Orson Scott Card
The second book in Card's trilogy focusing on the women of the Book of Genesis features Rebekah. Chosen by God for a special destiny, Rebekah becomes the wife of Isaac, son of Abraham, and finds herself caught up in a series of painful rivalries--first between her husband and his brother Ishmael, then between her sons Jacob and Esau.
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Sarah
by Orson Scott Card
Sarai was a child of ten years, wise for her age but not yet a woman, when she first met Abram. He appeared before her in her father's house, filthy from the desert, tired and thirsty. But as the dirt of travel was washed from his body, the sight of him filled her heart. And when Abram promises Sarai to return in ten years to take her for his wife, her fate was sealed. Abram kept his promise, and Sarai kept hers they were wed, and so joined the royal house of Ur with the high priesthood of the Hebrews. So began a lifetime of great joy together, and greater peril: and with the blessing of their God, a great nation would be built around the core of their love. Bestselling author Orson Scott Card uses his fertile imagination, and uncanny insight into human nature, to tell the story of a unique woman--one who is beautiful, tough, smart, and resourceful in an era when women had little power, and are scarce in the historical record. Sarah, child of the desert, wife of Abraham, takes on vivid reality as a woman desirable to kings, a devoted wife, and a faithful follower of the God of Abraham, chosen to experience an incomparable miracle.
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Stone Tables
by Orson Scott Card
From the political intrigue of Pharaoh's court to the manifestations of the Lord on Mount Sinai, from the plagues of Egypt to the parting of the Red Sea, the story of Moses is one of the most interesting and colorful in the Old Testament. Now that story is brought vividly to life in a fictional setting. Stone Tables explores how God could take ordinary men like Moses and Aaron, with all their weaknesses, and transform them into prophet and priest. Nationally renowned author Orson Scott Card brings new insights to an age-old story. His creative fictionalization of the events of scripture and history lends a fresh and fascinating perspective. But this is more than just an entertaining tale. 'My effort is to make sure that those who read this story emerge with an understanding of how good people struggle with each other and with their understanding of God's will as they try to make some decent use of their years of life,' writes Card. It's a message as timely today as it was when Moses led Israel to freedom more than two millennia ago. --Amazon.com.
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Tamar
by Ann Chamberlin
Evoking the world of ancient Israel, an epic of love and war follows the adventures of Tamar, a proud woman and goddess-worshipping outcast, who becomes part of the harem of the great King David.
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Avishag
by Yael Lotan
Of the scant female biblical characters, few are as intriguing as Avishag the Shunammite: a young girl brought from the obscurity to the court of aged King David, to warm the King's bed and stir his aged blood. As the sons of David- Adonijah the Judean and Solomon the Wise, - stake their claims, it is Avishag who will play the decisive role in the bloodly rivalry for the succession.
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עדיאל. אנגלית
by Shelomoh Di-Nur
"Adiel is a re-telling of the Old Testament story of the Bible, from the Creation of Adam and Eve through the ten generations that culminates with Noah and the Flood. It is told through the observations of "Adiel, an angel, appointed by God and the Archangel Michael, whose responsibility it is to record the events of Man--a sort of protective angel of history. Utilizing the ancient forms of "Midrash, the Jewish term for literary and creative Biblical exposition, it is a reflection on the place of man in the universe, and on good and evil. The angel Adiel is chosen to witness the tragedies of the ten generations of man.
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The Man who Fell Into a Puddle
by Igal Sarna
From one of Israel's leading investigative journalists, piercingly honest portraits of Israeli men and women who, in the face of brutal and desperate forces, try-often without success-to hold onto their past, their identity, their sanity, and their hope. The son of a Holocaust survivor descends into paranoia, "swept away like a demon-ravaged refugee ship"; a Bedouin boy kills his father with a stone; a Russian immigrant crashes his car-his sole, proud possession-and vanishes into the desert; a veteran is left with agonizing memories of his fallen comrades in the Yom Kippur War; a senior army officer who grew up believing himself to be an orphan discovers his mother living among Arabs in Jordan. These are just a few of the people whose stories make up this stunning book. Brilliantly, Igal Sarna lets their unexpected and harrowing tales speak for themselves, carefully weaving individual voices into a narrative of shattering power. Like no other book before it, The Man Who Fell into a Puddle reveals the profound human suffering at the heart of the process of creating the Israeli nation.