Miriam

Seen through the eyes of Moses' older sister, this novel reimagines the Exodus from the side of a woman whose part in the story reaches well beyond the deliverance of Israel. Her hardest battle is fought inside her own heart, and the book follows how faith is forged through a long trial in the desert, how her pride and arrogance threaten it, and how God's mercy and grace finally restore her.

Lois Henderson keeps close to the biblical account while supplying the historical, cultural, and narrative detail that the scriptural text leaves out. Along the way she brings in the plagues on Egypt, the manna that falls in the wilderness, and the giving of the Ten Commandments, and she gives vivid life to several of the Old Testament's best-known figures.

The story moves through Moses' return to Egypt and the rescue of the children of Israel, with their excitement and the sweep of the drama intact. Miriam's joy, grief, doubt, and eventual faith drive the narrative, and the lives of her brothers Moses and Aron, the Israelite people, and the wider world all unfold around her.