Miriam

This is the second novel in Maggie Anton's Rashi's Daughters series, set in eleventh-century Troyes, France. Its focus is Miriam, the middle daughter of Salomon ben Isaac, known as Rashi, the widely revered scholar of the Talmud. With no sons to carry on his learning, Rashi educates his daughters in Mishnah and Gemara, a course of study almost unimaginable for women of that time and place.

Miriam, lively and bold, sets her sights on helping women of the Troyes Jewish community bring children into the world safely, and she trains as a midwife. She is fully committed to this path, yet the story follows the trials she could not have anticipated and the growing reliance on her faith that they demand.

Anton draws the reader into the world of Talmudic study and medieval French Jewish life, portraying the hardships and victories of strong Jewish women of the period. Readers new to the series will find the historical setting vivid and the characters' inner lives central to the narrative.