Stories are deadlier than swords. Swords kill only those who stand before them, stories decide who will live and die in generations to come. Shelomoam, a young man from the tribe of Ephraim, has grown up in the shadow of dark secrets. He wonders why his father is deathly afraid of the King's soldiers and why his mother has lied about the identities of those closest to him. Shelomoam is determined to unearth his mysterious past, never imagining where...

The story of Jesus Christ as a thing of this earth: a questioning adolescent who is troubled by the world and by his body; a mother who is, by turns, devoted, fearful, and resentful; a family with all the complex frictions of any family.

"With a bold voice reminiscent of Madeline Miller's Circe, a stunning reimagining of the story of a fierce princess from Tyre and her infamous legacy Jezebel was born into the world howling. She intends to leave it the same way. When Jezebel learns she can't be a king like her father simply because she's a girl, she vows never to become someone's decorative wife, nameless and lost to history. At fifteen she's married off, despite her protests, to...

"Inspired by the biblical account of Nehemiah, Jewish cupbearer to the King of Persia, this story tells of the many dangers in his return to Jerusalem and the great opposition his people faced in their efforts to rebuild the city wall"--

Ninety-year-old John, the final surviving apostle, remembers his broken life before befriending Jesus and is called upon to write a gospel that definitively establishes Jesus as the Son of God.

"Esther is poised to save her people from annihilation. Relying on a fragile trust in a silent God, can she pit her wisdom against a vicious enemy and win?"--

"Whispered secrets about her parents' past take on new urgency for Chariline as she pays one last visit to the land of her forefathers, the ancient kingdom of Cush. Raised as an orphan by her aunt, Chariline has only been told a few pieces of her parents' tragic love story. Her beautiful dark skin is proof that her father was Cushite, but she knows nothing else. While visiting her grandfather before his retirement as the Roman official in the queen's...

"In The First Christmas, Stephen Mitchell brings the Nativity story to vivid life as never before. A narrative that is only sketched out in two Gospels becomes fully realized here with nuanced characters and a setting that reflects the culture of the time. Mitchell has suffused the birth of Jesus with a sense of beauty that will delight and astonish readers. In this version, we see the world through the eyes of a Whitmanesque ox and a visionary donkey,...