The Biblical / Torah story of Esther is one of my favorites. In the Biblical story, Esther’s beauty makes her the wife of the king of Persia (I think?), and then she’s able to use her status as queen to protect the Jewish people from a king who wants to kill them. Actually, it’s Haman, the king’s corrupt advisor who wants the Jews dead, and the king just goes along with it. Forgot to mention, the king killed his last wife, so he’s probably not a really friendly and well-adjusted dude. Anyway, Esther has to convince her husband, though both bravery and tricks, not to randomly let Haman kill all the Jews.
They tried to kill us, we survived, yay, it’s a holiday!
Barton keeps some of the themes, but this isn’t a retelling. Everything is great in the Jewish/Turkish empire, until the 1940s, when a certain Germanic leader comes to power. A young girl, Esther, needs to use a combination of bravery and trickery to save her people. This is much more of a religiously-inspired adventure, than a retelling.
I love that this ancient story has inspired two new, and very different novels!
I received The Book of Esther from the publisher to review. All opinions are my own.
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