Book: Pearl in the Sand

This week, the


Christian Fiction Blog Alliance


is introducing


Pearl In The Sand Moody Publishers (September 1, 2010)


by Tessa Afshar

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tessa Afshar was born in a nominally Muslim family in Iran and lived there for the first fourteen years of her life. She survived English boarding school for girls before moving to the United States permanently. Her conversion to Christianity in her mid-twenties changed the course of her life forever. Tessa holds an MDIV from Yale University where she served as co-Chair of the Evangelical Fellowship at the Divinity School. She has spent the last twelve years in full and part-time Christian work and currently serves as the leader of Women’s and Prayer ministries at a church in Connecticut.


ABOUT THE BOOK

Can a Canaanite harlot who has made her livelihood by looking desirable to men make a fitting wife for one of the leaders of Israel? Shockingly, the Bible’s answer is yes. At the age of fifteen Rahab is forced into prostitution by her beloved father. In her years as a courtesan, she learns to mistrust men and hate herself. Into the emotional turmoil of her world walks Salmone, a respected leader of Judah. Through the tribulations of a stormy relationship, Rahab and Salmone learn the true source of one another’s worth in God and find healing from fear and rejection.

***

While I haven't had a chance to read this one yet, I have high hopes for it.  I really enjoy books that take a character from the Bible that usually has very little written about them and creates a story about their life.  If it is well done it makes you re-think your preconceived notions of who that person was.  Like the story about the Samaritan woman at the well, which was one of my favorite books last year.

ETA: This is one of those books that will stick with me.  It was really really well written and the sub-story of Rahab learning to let go of her past is relevant to all ages.  I really appreciated that Tessa included bits of the story of the Nation of Israel in her narrative so that I had a feel for the setting.  Rather than just have it be in a desert camp there was also the story of Achan and the day the sun stood still.  It helped me remember that although this was a fictionalized account these things really did happen.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Pearl In The Sand, go HERE