A.D. 30

     Maviah is a woman living in 30 A.D., and as if that alone is not shame enough, she is the illegitimate child of a renowned Bedouin sheikh, Rami bin Malik, cast aside by his pride and born into slavery herself.  To make matters worse, during her exile in Egypt she became the defiled mother to a son. Maviah is the lowest of the low. Defiled. Dirty. Unholy. Slave. If not because of her gender then because of the course of her life and the choices of those around her, not to mention her own. And when she thinks things couldn't possibly get worse for her, her father's kingdom is attacked, her infant son is killed, and she is sent on a perilous errand across the Nafud desert to deliver a ceremonial dagger to the lustful, unpredictable Herod. This dagger is meant to be her people's saving grace and means of deliverance. So in the company of her father's most loyal and trusted servant, Saba, and an odd-mannered Bedu Jew called Judah, she must fulfill this duty.
     What else could she possibly have to live for?

     Dekker brings history and fiction together in a kind of refreshing, intertwining plot of raw emotion and gripping adventure. He offers striking insight into the way women were perceived and treated during the time period, and the emotional struggles that might result from their way of life. Perhaps even more striking is his take on the encounter this particular woman has with Jesus Christ himself - Yeshua, the mystic, stirring uproar and rebellion amongst the Jewish people while teaching love to anyone who would listen.

     It is an encounter with Yeshua that changes the entire course of Maviah's story; the entire course of her life. And she is only one of many forgotten people who may have touched lives with Jesus in person before the date of his crucifixion. Dekker explores the effect that this may have had on the course of history, never failing to electrify the heart with the prospect of what may have been. His depiction of Yeshua is very real, very alive, and breathtakingly true.

--Elise--
  

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