![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() She also asserts that in her father’s Greek-loving house, what mattered was the appearance of keeping Judaic laws. Her father is head scribe to Herod Antipas, and through him Ana is tutored and provided the tools she needs to write. ![]() Whereas The Red Tent entrenches the reader in the nomadic life of a tent dwelling/compound, The Book of Longings takes the reader to a well-to-do house in Sepphoris, with Ana’s mother, her father, her adopted brother, and her aunt. Details of the era and place flow throughout the story, like, “It was the first day of the month of Tishri, but the cool fall rains had not yet come.” Carefully chosen words and sentences that reflect the era, obviously the product of meticulous research, allows me to be a first-person witness to Israel in the Herodian period, setting the mood for the writing and story of Ana, herself. I love to read a book like this and actually feel like I’ve been transported into the story as though it’s happening in real time. I was completely enthralled by the history, by the surroundings in which the story is set, and by becoming saturated within first century Jewish customs and life. Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees, has written a historically captivating book that I couldn’t put down (ancient history lover that I am). I found The Book of Longings to ultimately be a love story between the permanence and power of writing, and the finite life of a young woman named Ana, fringed by those her love story impacts. ![]()
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