Saturday, May 14, 2011

A Brief Synopsis of My Books

Some may have wondered what my books are about and haven't taken the time to go to the booksellers' sites to find out.  So I thought I'd render a brief synopsis of each one here in the order that I wrote them:

The Samaritan Treasure [1990]  Short fiction collection nominated for a Minnesota Book Award.  The stories narrate the Jewish experience throughout time from ancient Israel to Regency England and the American Midwest.

The Exodus Chronicles  [2005]  In this work of nonfiction I have assembled all that was said in antiquity about the exodus of the Jews from Egypt by the ancient historians and have also included some interesting tidbits from Medieval and modern writers.  I included my own commentaries about dates and other things relative to Egypt and primary texts from this land.  Basically, this book is an "Everything you ever wanted to know about the exodus"--or was there actually more than one?

The Pharaoh's Barber [2008]  Set in the court of Thutmose III, this tale of mystery and murder is experienced through the eyes of the king's own barber, a young Canaanite captive named Levi.  Who hated the pharaoh's beautiful new wife, Satiah, enough to kill her?  More than one individual has a motive, including the members of Thutmose's own family, beginning with his first wife, Neferura, the proud and iron-willed daughter of Hatshepsut.

The Priest [2008]  Father Raphael Arnheim is a man with an unusual past, who ultimately describes himself as "the worst priest in all of Christendom".   This erotic novel shows what can happen to a man before he realizes that love is "the one true and holy thing in the universe".

Jane Austen's Thimble [2009]  A novella whose setting is London.  Andrea Beller, a young American woman, has given up on life but a diverse cast of characters and a thimble she found at Chawton, the home of her favorite novelist, help Andrea to find her way back to happiness and solve the puzzle of her identity.

Lucien Galtier-Pioneer Priest [2010]  Biography of the first priest to come to the Minnesota Territory and who built the first church.  Born in France, youthful Father Galtier struggles to survive physically and spiritually in the rough frontier towns on the Mississippi river.