historical fiction

Review: The Prodigal of Leningrad

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Cover image of "The Prodigal of Leningrad" by Daniel Taylor

The Prodigal of Leningrad

The Prodigal of Leningrad, Daniel Taylor. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9798893480221) 2026.

Summary: During the siege of Leningrad, a docent who had betrayed his grandfather finds himself in Rembrandt’s Prodigal.

At the beginning of the siege of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), the Hermitage, one of the world’s great art museums, shipped the canvases of its collection eastward to a secret hiding place to keep them out of Nazi hands. In this work of historical fiction, the central character, Daniil, is a volunteer docent in the museum. But what does a docent do when visitors arrive but all that is left are the frames? He describes in detail the painting and the story of the artist and its composition.

The most famous of the masterworks was Rembrandt’s The Return of the Prodigal. It was the one on which Daniil spent the most time. The painting holds a personal attraction for him reflecting his dark past.

Daniil, as a newly married father back in 1920, had great hopes for his future as a university student. That is, until he was called in to be interrogated one day. His grandfather, Anatoly Ivanovich Aslanov had been a history professor who became a priest. He went underground and the authorities were seeking him, supposedly to “persuade” him to return to teaching. Daniil, in a moment of weakness, confesses that his grandfather joined the family for Christmas celebrations. They arrested the grandfather that day, sending him to the Gulag. And they still revoked Daniil’s university admission. He has carried the guilt of that betrayal all his life.

The narrative moves back and forth between the grandfather’s life in the Gulag and Daniil, mostly focusing on conditions during the siege. The grandfather sees his imprisonment as a call from God and himself as immortal until he finishes his work. Much of that is to rescue other prisoners from despair. At one point, he and another prisoner are confined in an underground confinement cell from which none had emerged alive. Yet they emerge, kept warm by God.

Taylor describes the conditions of the siege, where rations were grossly inadequate to keep people alive. Daniil and his friends Aleksandr and Lev buoy each other’s spirits. Eventually Lev succumbs to starvation and Taylor describes the agonizing journey Aleksandr and Daniil make across the city, weak themselves to bury Lev and his wife. One of the most moving (and historically accurate), moments was when Aleksandr and other musicians perform the premiere of Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony, the ‘Leningrad.’ They mount speakers so that the Germans can hear the performance and the spirit of defiance of those in the city.

As Daniil weakens in his own body, he keeps telling the story of The Return of the Prodigal. He begins to speak of the spiritual significance of the painting, defying the censors. But will he believe that story for himself?

Daniel Taylor weaves a story that gives an unsparing portrayal of the Soviet Union under communism–the secret police, the Gulags, the effort to exterminate belief. He also describes the heroism of both citizens and soldiers who held out for 900 days until the Germans relented. But above all, he tells the story of both a faithful priest and the grandson who struggles with what seems an unforgiveable betrayal. Taylor explores whether the light of God’s goodness and mercy can reach the darkest corners of the Gulag and the troubled soul of the betrayer.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Eden’s Clock

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Cover image of "Eden's Clock" by Norman Lock

Eden’s Clock

Eden’s Clock (American Novels, Number 12), Norman Lock. Bellevue Literary Press (ISBN: 9781954276390) 2025.

Summary: A widowed clocksmith commissioned to repair a clock in San Francisco experiences misadventures enroute and meets Jack London.

In April of 1906, Frederick Heigold spots Jack London in a bar. Heigold wants to tell London his story, not an easy task since Heigold lost his voice to a Civil War wound and uses a slate to communicate. This narrative, the concluding novel in the American Novels series by Norman Lock, reflects the story he wants to share with London, very different than the ones he writes.

After the Civil War, he returned to Dobb’s Ferry and took up his trade as clocksmith. He had a long marriage with his wife Lillian, a suffragist activist, who had recently died from a tragic accident in their home. His talents became widely known, so much so that he had received a commission to repair the Union Deport clock on the Embarcadero in San Francisco. He agrees, and after preparations, goes to New York City to embark on a cross-country journey.

However, that journey will take six months. Through a series of misadventures, he encounters the underside of America. Falling in on arrival, by chance, with the “wrong people” he is arrested and spends months in The Tombs. Finally released, he falls into the clutches of a scamming preacher. Only when he meets up with Bonaparte, a former slave, does he escape, embarking on a merchant ship to the Caribbean. Shipwrecked, he nearly drowns before rescue by residents from Edisto Island. Finally, he embarks on the cross-country trip, meeting a further assortment of characters.

Most of the novel is Heigold’s misadventures. Only the last forty pages chronicle his arrival. A historic detail, reflected in the cover image, is that Heigold’s encounter with London occurs on the eve of the Great San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. We spend the novel wondering if Heigold will fix the clock and talk to London.

There is a resilient sadness about Heigold. What drew me in was the narrative voice of this voiceless man. But I must admit that I found myself losing interest during the interminable detours. I wondered, will he ever reach San Francisco? Yet the journey serves a purpose. Heigold’s experiences tell a story of the underside of the American experience. This contrasts with both London’s novels and the popular painting of American Progress, by John Gast (reproduced in the book). Heigold’s tale dispels the utopian dreams of his time and resonates with the questions we have about “American greatness” in our own time.

I’ve not read the previous numbers in this series. But if this is the conclusion, I thought the novel anticlimactic. The interesting narrator and the important theme were not enough to carry the story for me. Unlike other series I’ve read out of order, this didn’t make want to go back and read earlier numbers.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

The Weekly Wrap: November 2-8

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woman in white crew neck t shirt in a bookstore wrapping books
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The Weekly Wrap: November 2-8

Writing for AI

One of the articles I feature this week highlights one writer’s realization that those of us still writing may not only use AI to write but are likely writing for AI.

I know this to be true. My blog software tells me where people are referred from who don’t come directly to my site. On a near daily basis, people visit from ChatGPT and other AI large language models. That tells me that these LLMs regularly “scrape” my website and include it as a source in their answers. I find the text of these answers often reflect the source website. Often, that is all someone will read. I am writing for AI whether I wish to or not. In fact, various AI programs may be among my most dedicated “readers.” But perhaps I flatter myself!

How do I feel about that? Resigned is probably the best word I can think of. It’s one of the prices of posting material on the internet. I like it when it translates into people coming to my website. But I suspect 5-10 don’t for each who does.

The article writer explores how to leverage writing for AI. But I don’t think I want to devote too much energy to figuring out how to woo that black box. I pay attention to SEO and readability. However the writer mentioned one idea about writing that caught my attention. The material AI trains on shapes its “character.” I hope the ethos of goodness, truth, and beauty in books I’ve sought to put forward has at least some marginal effect. At very least I hope for this with a few of my human readers. If nothing else, it has for me.

Five Articles Worth Reading

So, the article to which I’ve been referring is “Baby Shoggoth Is Listening” by Dan Kagan-Kans, writing for The American Scholar. He does make me wonder if most human writing, even books, may be mediated through AI in the reading experience of most people. Tell me what you think.

Conservatives have been busy reasserting their vision of traditional masculinity. Things like empathy, vulnerability, and asking for help are out. They are too feminine. Leah Libresco Sargeant, a thoughtful conservative writer pushes back on this trend in a new book, reviewed in “A Conservative Rejoinder to the Manosphere.”

Among many readers I interact with, historical fiction is more popular than history. However, the question arises of how true the fiction is to history. In “Emma Donoghue on Populating Historical Fiction,” the writer explores these questions.

Then, in “At the Heart of Don Quixote,” James Como identifies a storytelling device that we may miss and that is important to the narrative.

Finally, NY Times critic A.O. Scott says “When I’m Sick of Doomscrolling, I Turn to This Poem.” He even reads it for us!

Quote of the Week

Albert Camus was born November 7, 1913. This quote underscores A. O. Scott’s point:

“We have art in order not to die of life.”

Miscellaneous Musings

A. O. Scott is not the only one who reads poetry online. Every Wednesday is “Bob on Poetry” day at my Facebook Page. Recording poetry is a great way to get it into one’s life. you rarely get it “right” in one “take.” One has to think about meaning, phrasing, rhythm and rhyme. I suspect like many things I do online, I profit as much or more than others!

I learned this week that Thriftbooks now has a special deal for AARP members. If you are in the over 50 crowd and a member, head over to their “Special Offer for AARP Members” and save 5% extra when you buy two or more books.

I’m reading Marce Catlett: The Force of a Story, Wendell Berry’s latest Port William novel. I hope Mr. Berry is with us a good while yet. But the book has a valedictory feel to it, as if Berry is speaking through grandson Andy Catlett, now old himself, about what was achieved for a time in the Port William membership, and what has been sadly lost.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: John U. Bacon, The Gales of November

Tuesday: A. C. Seiple, The Sacred Art of Slowing Down

Wednesday: Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic

Thursday: Rebecca Grabill, illustrated by Isabella Grott, One Star, Three Kings

Friday: Angie Ward, Beyond Church and Parachurch

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for November 2-8.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page

Review: The Women

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Cover image of "The Women" by Kristin Hannah

The Women, Kristin Hannah. St Martin’s Press (ISBN: 9781250178633), 2024.

Summary: A historical fiction account of the experiences of women nurses who served in Vietnam war combat areas and what it was like to come home.

Frankie McGrath grew up in a strict Catholic household where military service was honored on a “wall of heroes” in the family library. So when her brother Finley enlisted as a Navy helicopter pilot, she decided to follow him in one of the few ways women could, by becoming a nurse. After completing nurses training, she enlisted in the Army, where she could go to Vietnam right away, ill-prepared as she was, leaving her parents in shock. The only “heroes” were men.

But she wouldn’t follow her brother. She would take the place of one who died in a helicopter crash in which no remains could be recovered. And soon she would discover that this was only the tip of the iceberg. She arrives at mildewed quarters amid a mass casualty event. She sees mangled bodies of young men and blood thick on the floors. Nurses Barb and Ethel, who become steadfast friends, walk her through it. A skilled surgeon, Jamie, teaches her step by step how to close wounds and perform procedures to save lives nurses would not ordinarily perform. She not only becomes good, she discovers a calling. Some men live because of what she does. She comforts many in their dying moments.

She re-ups when her friends go home to help the younger nurses. But something is wrong. The war is escalating and young men rushed into service come in droves to her evac. One day, napalm victims come to the hospital and she holds a napalm burned child as it dies. She watches Jamie, wounded severely under attack take off in a helicopter and a medic stopping CPR.. She falls in love with a helicopter pilot, Rye, who she learns died just before he was due to come home.

The second part of the book is about what happened after her tour ended and she returned home. People curse and spit on her when she arrives at the airport. Her parents don’t want to hear about her experiences. They want life to go on as if she hadn’t been in Vietnam. She learns they had given out the story that she was studying abroad in Florence. She’s not a hero to them. Rather, they are ashamed of her.

Then the nightmares begin. She has flashbacks when she hears a loud noise at a party. She can’t keep nursing jobs. Drink and drugs help her self-anesthetize. Frankie seeks help at the VA and is told women didn’t serve or see combat in Vietnam. She cannot find help. Something is broken inside, but she doesn’t understand what. She tries to pull herself together, with the help of Barb and Ethel, only to lose it all when a triggering event sends her spiraling out of control

We watch her self-destruct, despite the people, including her parents, who try to care for her. We wonder as we read if she will get the help she needs to pull out of the death spiral she is in.

Kristen Hannah captures a story too-seldom told. It took nearly twenty years to unveil The Vietnam Women’s Memorial in 1993. It depicts a combat nurse caring for a wounded soldier.

Vietnam Women’s Memorial, Washington, D.C. Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

I have a friend, a former colleague, who was a nurse in Vietnam. She has never talked about her experiences in the war or coming home. I wonder if they were anything like this book. Kristin Hannah helps me understand why she may have remained quiet. She also helps me understand the debt we owe to all the women who served. I grieve the painful things they saw and the horrible ways many were treated when they returned. I grieve hearing “no women served in Vietnam” when 265,000 did in military and civilian roles. Thanks to Kristin Hannah’s fine account that affirms that “they were heroes, too.”

Review: Arm and Hammer

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Arm and Hammer, Jonathan K. Wade. Culver City, CA: Gambit Publishing, 2022.

Summary: A historical fiction account or the Iran-Contra affair telling the story of US NSC and CIA complicity with drug cartels distributing cocaine in US cities to fund the Contra resistance to the Sandinista government of Nicaragua.

It began with the downfall of the corrupt Somoza regime of Nicaragua to the Communist Sandinistas. The U.S. had watched this happen once before in Cuba. Fidel Castro had brought down a corrupt regime. A Communist regime was just 90 miles from the mainland and stubbornly survived the Bay of Pigs debacle and other covert attempts to bring it down. Now another country in the American sphere of influence had become Communist. Not only did it rankle the staunchly anti-Communist Reagan presidency, there were a group of former Somoza military figures and the resistance they recruited, the Contras wanting to bring down the Sandinistas. There was one problem. The U.S. Congress looked dimly on the whole affair after Vietnam. Initially funding aid, they cut, then eliminated appropriations. The National Security Council was tasked with finding ways to continue to fund the effort. Part was the covert arm sales to Iran, hopefully to secure releases of American hostages in Lebanon. Funds from the sales were diverted to the Contras. But it was not enough.

This book, a historical fiction account, tells the story of the other part of that funding effort. We learn how Nicaraguans in the U.S., who got into the cocaine trade working with Colombian cartels were persuaded to channel funds through CIA operatives to assist the Contra effort in exchange for the CIA securing landing strips and the cooperation of the DEA to look the other way as pilots ferried arms to camps along the Nicaraguan border and drugs back to the US. This book renders an account showing how high officials were “in the know”: William Casey of the CIA, Robert McFarlane and Admiral John Poindexter of the NSC, Elliot Abrams at State. We learn how Oliver North and his deputy, Robert Owen, ran the operation, working with Bay of Pigs assassin turned CIA operative Felix Rodriquez (a.k.a. Max Gomez), how newly affluent Nicaraguans siphoned off money until Rodriquez brought them brutally in line.

Most of all, we learn how cocaine dealers like Freeway Ricky went from two bit operators cooking crack cocaine in apartments to a multi-million dollar business, flooding the streets of Los Angeles and other American cities with crack cocaine. It’s from here that we get the book’s title. Baking soda is a key ingredient in “baking” crack.

It was all illegal. The story is a study of the justifications people used, from continuing the resistance to Communism that failed in Cuba to defending American interest to wanting to earn enough to get out of the ‘hood and the business. It unfolds year by year through the 1980’s up to 1987. Wade moves the story from the jungles of Costa Rica on the Nicaraguan border to the streets of Los Angeles, to offices in San Francisco and Miami where rich Nicaraguans ran drug operations, to the centers of power in Washington. Along the way, the brutality of both the drug trade and black ops is evident in hits and assassinations. Broken trust, or even the danger of it, could be fatal.

Then the reckoning, when a C-123 transport is shot down over Nicaragua in 1986, and one of the crew along with an incriminating black book survives. Over the next year it all unravels as Oliver North and his secretary try to frantically shred documents and a most incriminating ledger as agents knock on the office doors. We see who walks away and who takes the fall.

Wade offers a riveting, fast-moving account of how it all unfolds. My only quibble is his insistence on recording Oliver North “grinding his molars” in every meeting. I suspect this reflects an actual habit, but it is overused here. Aside from this, the story is a disturbing account of our governments complicity in the drug trade we official excoriated in the “war on drugs” and our incarceration policies. The key figures did see prison time, but nothing like the small time dealers and users, if they survived long enough to go to prison. It is a story of hubris and folly and ultimately of betrayal, one those in power do well to read and remember.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher through BookSirens.

Review: Granite Kingdom

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Granite Kingdom, Eric Pope. Montpelier, VT: Rootstock Publishing, 2022.

Summary: Set in Vermont’s granite country in 1910, narrates a rivalry between two granite companies representing old and new ways, with a young newspaperman with social aspirations caught in between.

Dan Strickland is a stonecutter’s son. His father died of white lung disease, breathing in granite dust as he worked in George Rutherford’s granite shops. He has higher aspirations and goes to work at the Granite Junction Gazette, helping with various tasks given him by Slayton, the editor who hopes his weekly editorials will open the way to higher positions with a big city newspaper. Meanwhile Dan begins working as a reporter, whose “Local Lumps” column rapidly becomes the town’s favorite part of the newspaper.

Rutherford Granite is the biggest employer in town. Capitalized by out-of-town investors, they dominate the granite business in this Vermont town, and thus enjoy the favor of the newspaper and the town fathers. The rival is Wheeler Granite, a smaller and older company. Rutherford is a union shop. Wheeler builds personal loyalty and pays well for quality work. Rutherford goes big, with government building contracts in big cities. Wheeler does a smaller but steady business. George Rutherford loves new ways, new machines and methods. Wheeler sticks to the tried and true. Rutherford tries to win Wheeler over, attempting to persuade him to take some smaller jobs. Wheeler refuses.

They clash. Rutherford dumps waste on Wheeler’s property. Rutherford takes over the railroad and charges his competitors more than his own company. This is at the behest of his investors who want more profit. It costs his bookkeeper his integrity. Wheeler challenges him repeatedly in court and wins, but has a tough time with the enforcement of any judgments. George Rutherford would like to get along but his wife Alice is another story. She is determined that the business will succeed and that the Rutherfords will dominate society, even if it means cutting Wheeler’s wife out of the social scene.

Just when Rutherford Granite seems to have the upper hand a series of deadly accidents occur. Rutherford enlists Dan to investigate, suspecting anarchist activity, which has occurred in other towns. Both Dan’s investigative efforts and his social and romantic ambitions expose him to the various strata of Granite Junction society, from the West End where workers live, and where liquor can be bought in the dry town and sensual pleasures satisfied, to the shops on Main Street, where many of the Gazette’s advertising money comes from, and the upper class homes (and girls) on High Street. Others like to use Dan as well, like the winsome Perley Prescott, always working a new business scheme, who uses Dan to procure liquor. Then there is Bob Blackstone, Wheeler’s foreman who resents the favoring of the Rutherford enterprises by the newspaper and Dan’s investigations into the “accidents” at Rutherford’s business. Resentments turn to threats.

Dan discovers how hard it is to rise beyond one’s roots in such a stratified society. As a reporter, will he truly report “without fear or favor?” Will he pursue prestige or power, or listen to Lieutenant Ridgeway who sees a different future in this young man? And beyond these personal matters, how will the increasingly deadly rivalry resolve and what will that mean for Granite Junction and its workers?

First-time author Eric Pope combines a page turning plot with a sociological study of a town in the heart of the granite mining industry. He draws upon his experience editing a northern Vermont paper for ten years while researching the town’s history, the basis for this novel. Like real life, there are characters we love and root for, ones we admire, ones we hate, and a number in between, all the types that make up a town like Granite Junction–and maybe our town as well.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer Program.

Review: Sergeant Salinger

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Sergeant Salinger, Jerome Charyn. New York: Bellevue Literary Press, 2021.

Summary: A fictional account of J.D. Salinger’s early adult life, centered around his wartime service with the CIC including the landing at Utah Beach, fighting in Normandy’s Hedgerows, the interrogation of German captives, the harrowing fighting of Huertgen Forest during the Battle of the Bulge, and the discovery of a Nazi death camp.

J. D. Salinger was one of the more enigmatic and reclusive authors in the twentieth century. Catcher in the Rye and Franny and Zooey are among the most significant novels of the twentieth century and arguably influential on the style of other more recent works. In this work of fiction, that closely follows Salinger’s biography Jerome Charyn explores the impact of World War Two on the trajectory of Salinger’s life between opening and closing scenes in New York.

The work opens with Salinger invited by the debutante Oona O’Neill to join her as Walter Winchell held court at Table 50. At this time he’s completed prep school, has had a few stories published while Oona is serving as eye candy as Winchell hobnobs with the likes of Hemingway. He loves Oona but the war interrupts their relationship. After a tantalizing but unfulfilled last night, she goes to Hollywood while he is drafted and sent to England with the Counter Intelligence Corp while training as a rifleman.

He carries a satchel with a manuscript whose main character is Holden Caulfield and he writes when he can on an old army issue Corona. That is, until the horrors of war interrupt. He witnesses a horrible training accident at Slapton Sands and has to help with the coverup, burying the bodies. He is in the second wave to hit Utah Beach, shepherding his captain, who is shell-shocked to safety. He joins the fighting in the hedgerows of Normandy. He survives the horror of Huertgen Forest in the Battle of the Bulge. He stumbles on a Nazi death camp, unable to get rid of the smell of burning and rotting bodies, and the horror of the walking dead, the few survivors. All of this actually happened to Salinger.

Charyn portrays a Salinger psychologically damaged, needing to check into a psychiatric institute, where he meets and later marries Sylvie, another brief and failed relationship. He feels so damaged, he helps with de-Nazification rather than going home as soon as possible. He’s not lost his humanity, tenderly rescuing and paying for the care of Alicja, a young girl assaulted in the camp, left tongue-less. When he does return, he has episodes of “zoning out” and only with the care of family, especially his sister Dottie does he get to the place where he can write in an apartment on Sleepy Hollow Lane.

Was Salinger a victim of PTSD? That is what Charyn and others who have written of Salinger would have us believe, His daughter Margaret would contend otherwise. But the novel offers a compelling portrayal of a psychologically scarred Salinger, leaving us wonder how things would have been different apart from the war.

Charyn frames the work with two unfulfilled relationships, with Oona and Sylvie. That maps with much of Salinger’s life. His second marriage ended in divorce after eleven years. He had at least two more brief relationships before marrying for the third time in 1988, a marriage that lasted until he passed in 2010.

Finally, we are left wondering what will happen to Holden Caulfield. Will the manuscript in the satchel see the light of day? We know the answer to that, but the end of the novel leaves us wondering what else that Salinger wrote has yet to see daylight. His last published work was in 1965 but he continued writing throughout his life. We’re left wondering whether we’ve seen Salinger’s best.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher via LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers Program. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Review: The Burning Land

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The Burning Land (Saxon Chronicles #5), Bernard Cornwell. New York: Harper Collins, 2010.

Summary: Uhtred, Alfred’s warrior is torn between his oaths to Alfred and his daughter, his longing to recover his stolen home of Bebbanburg, his Viking friend Ragnar, and the threat of a dangerous woman, a knife edge on which the fate of Alfred’s kingdom balances.

Uhtred, the Saxon raised by Vikings, is a warrior of unusual prowess in battle, a prowess of mind and strategy as well as the wielding of sword and shield and the leadership of men. He is sworn to Alfred, who claims to be “king of all Angelcynn” and has been key to sustaining that rule against the Danes. Once again he meets that challenge as Harald Bloodhair meets him at Fearnhamme. A charge down a hill combined with an attack from the rear decimates Harald’s army despite the curse of Harald’s woman, Skade, who is the most fearsome opponent Uhtred will face.

Yet Gisela, Uhtred’s beloved wife dies, and is subsequently insulted by a “seer” who Uhtred strikes down. This estranges him from Alfred, to whom he is oathbound and who wanted him bound as well to his son Edward, still unproven in battle. For a time, Uhtred even teams up with Skade who is drawn to power and conquest. Yet Uhtred’s ultimate aim is only to recover the castle home and kingdom of Bebbanburg from the uncle who stole it from him. Having neither the wealth nor the men to achieve this, he joins his old friend Ragnar and his old enemy Haesten to attack Alfred.

It is here that Skade will abandon him for Haesten, who has his sights set on Mercia, ruled by the husband of Alfred’s daughter Aethelflaed. Another oath, to Aethelflaed leads to the abandoning of his plans with Ragner and the his ultimate confrontation with Skade in what appears a lost cause.

Cornwell portrays a confrontation between Christianity and the old pagan gods of both Uhtred and the Danes, and an array of priests, some craven and some of great courage. We see a man torn by his only true ambition, the recovery of his home, and his oaths. We wonder why such a great warrior seems also unable to acquire the wealth and men to fulfill his ambitions, seemingly destined to fight others’ battles. We also have plenty of battles, and learn of the particular devastation of the sword that comes from beneath the shield. Throughout, we recognize why Uhtred is both hated and sought–his unique ability to see the way to victory, even against odds. But will it be enough against the wicked Skade?

Review: Into the Unbounded Night

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Into the Unbounded Night, Mitchell James Kaplan. Raleigh, NC: Regal House Publishing, 2020.

Summary: Historical fiction set in the mid-first century AD in the Roman Empire, spanning conquests from Albion (Britannia), Carthage, and Jerusalem, and the center of power in Rome.

Imagine a narrative that connects the characters of Vespasian, Roman general and future emperor, Saul of Tarsus, and Yohanan ben Zakkai, the rabbi who escaped rebellious Jerusalem and established a center that preserved Judaism after the fall of the temple and Jerusalem. Throw in cameos by Stephen the Martyr, Lucanus (Luke the physician), Caiaphas the high priest, and Josephus. Imagine a narrative that knits together the conquest of Britannia, the fires of Rome, Paul in prison, and the rebellion leading to the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

This is that narrative.

What ties this together is a young woman of Albion, Aislin, mentored by the warrioress Muirgheal. When the Romans under Vespasian come, Aislin alone survives, raped and then discarded by Vespasian. Aislin vows revenge. With a soldier who chooses anonymous exile to death, she flees Britannia (Rome’s name for Albion) ending up in Rome. While in Rome, she survives on the streets, bears a mentally deficient but lovable son, and ends up in prison with the Apostle Paul for burning Rome. As the flames spread, she and Paul escape, she agrees to carry a special coin to the Christians in Jerusalem as Paul’s emissary, and meets up with Yohanan ben Zakkai, also traveling there. There she remains as Yohanan forms a rabbinic community while failing to temper the brewing rebellion that brings down the wrath of Rome

Somehow, Aislin survives it all.

The narrative offers a glimpse of how Roman, Jewish, and early Christian history interweave. And somehow, it works as the narrative moves back and forth between Aislin, Yohanan, Vespasian, and Paulus (as he is called in the narrative). The strangest part perhaps is the “Messenger” Azazel, rescuer of scapegoats and lost children. We gain a sense of the rival religions of the empire and the rival hopes and visions of the diverse peoples. We glimpse all these through Aislin as well, who never quite embraces anything besides the remnants of her own spirituality, yet is enriched and moves beyond revenge to love a strange child and a mystical rabbi. We also see the brutal exercise of Roman power in colonial conquest and political decadence. The account is bracketed by encounters between Aislin and Vespasian, who discovers that he can only conquer land, but not the human spirit.

I wasn’t sure this would all work, but strong and complex characters (even Vespasian), a first century world the author brings vividly alive and a plot that spans an empire all come together to spin a fascinating tale. Sometimes we find ourselves puzzling at cultures so different from our own. At others we forget that two millenia separate us from these all-too-human people.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher via LibraryThing. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Review: A Week in the Life of Ephesus

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A week in the life of ephesus

A Week in the Life of Ephesus (A Week in the Life Series), David A. deSilva. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2020.

Summary: A historical novel exploring the religious and cultural context of Ephesus during the reign of Domitian c. 90 AD.

The latest installment in the IVP Academic “A Day in the Life Series” acquaints us with the religious and cultural context during the reign of Domitian, around 90 AD. Like other books in the series, David deSilva uses a historical fiction approach centering around Amyntas, a prosperous Christian landowner in a context becoming increasingly hostile to Christians, who were considered atheists because they did not join in the worship of the pantheon of deities, from local deities to the cult of the Roman Emperor Domitian.

Amyntas hosts a gathering of Christians in his home. Some community leaders, who are also involved in the various religious cults, including that of the Emperor Domitian, for whom Ephesus has been designated a regional center, collude in a plot to trap Amyntas. They invite him to become a neopoios for the temple of Domitian. This is a kind of caretaker or trustee position, that on the face of it is an honor and would make him an insider. But it would either compromise him, or “out” him as a Christian, leading to his being ostracized, or worse. A close friend, and then his own son, are beaten up for their Christian beliefs.

A Christian friend from Pergamum suggests that he “go along to get along.” After all, “idols don’t really mean anything.” The contacts he would make, and the influence he would wield, could help the Christians. People from his house church disagree, and even ask Amyntas’ friend to leave. Amyntas struggles to decide. It becomes more complicated when a letter arrives from the John, in exile on the isle of Patmos.

Through the narrative and sidebars, we learn about the pantheon of gods, and emperor worship, and how Christians worshiped. An underlying theme is the power of imperial Rome and how that power was projected through the imperial cult, and how imperial Rome was a drain on the rest of the empire. Although set two millenia ago, the narrative raises questions about what Christian faithfulness looks like in relation to the competing claims of empire. We are forced to consider what we would do, or perhaps are doing, when faced with the conflicting claims to allegiance of empire, and the kingdom of God. David deSilva portrays the subtle guise in which the temptation may come, the allure of the inner ring, the justifications one may use, and the real consequences of Christian faithfulness many through the ages have faced.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher. The opinions I have expressed are my own.