Book
The book of Esther : a novel
Record details
- ISBN: 9781101904091
- ISBN: 1101904097
- ISBN: 9781101904107
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Physical Description:
print
418 pages : map ; 25 cm - Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : Tim Duggan Books, [2016]
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | World War (1939-1945) Jews -- Fiction World War, 1939-1945 -- Europe -- Fiction |
| Genre: | Fiction. Alternative histories (Fiction) War stories. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at BC Interlibrary Connect.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kitimat Public Library | Bar (Text) | 32665002064832 | Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
More information
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2016 May #2
*Starred Review* In her third novel, brainy and ebulliently eloquent Barton (Brookland, 2006) tells the story of a Jewish Joan of Arc on the forbidding steppes between the Black and Caspian Seas. At 16, Estherâthe smart, well-educated, and restless daughter of a prominent government official betrothed to a rabbi's sonâwonders why Khazaria isn't mobilizing to confront the encroaching genocidal forces of Germania. Is it up to her? Can a woman be a military leader? Sneaking away with young Itakh, her adopted brother, and mounted on a temperamental mechanical horse, Esther sets out in a quasiâDon Quixote mode to find a legendary village of kabbalists in the hope that they will help her. The trio encounters a werewolf, an Uighur oil cartel, and the kabbalists' golems working in the fields. Barton's audacious tale of an otherwordly uprising against the Nazis is a wild pageant of tumult and valor, magic and inventiveness, which, for all its humor, sensuality, steampunk brio, and full-tilt military action, is profoundly inquisitive. Does a golem, a "made thing," have rights? A soul? What about a robot? Why are men and women treated differently? What does it mean to be a Jew? A human being? With intimations of Cynthia Ozick and Michael Chabon, Barton is spellbinding and provocative in this refulgent, topsy-turvy, questing fantasy, a mettlesome response to anti-Semitism and the forever-haunting Holocaust. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2016 April #2
World War II reimagined by the author of Brookland (2006). Esther bat Josephus is living the sheltered life of a high-status Khazar girl when the armies of Germania make their first sorties into her country. Because she's friends with some of the refugees who have resettled in Khazaria, she knows the war in the West isn't just any conflict; it is, rather, an existential threat to all Jews. Impatient with the response of Khazaria's leadersâincluding her own fatherâEsther is determined to fight. With this goal in mind, she runs away from home to seek the fabled cabalists who can, she believes, turn her into a man. Khazaria is, of course, Barton's invention. This is not her first foray into alternative historyâsee also her The Testament of Yves Gudron (2000)âand her worldbuilding is, for the most part, elegant and engaging. There are mechanical horses that, for reasons no one knows, behave just like living horses. There are werewolves. And there's the wis tful wonderfulness of a Jewish state that has protected itself from invaders for 1,000 years. Unfortunately, Barton doesn't seem to grasp that fantasy is best sustained by a brisk pace. It takes about a quarter of the novel's length for the heroine to make it to the cabalists' village, and this isn't exactly the trek from the Shire to Mordor; it is, rather, a journey of a couple days. Aside from the fact that the trip itself isn't hugely consequential, there's also the fact that the reader has plenty of time to consider that Esther's quest isn't so much nobly quixotic as it is kind of ridiculous. Slow pacing plagues the rest of the novel, too. It hardly seems fair to spend several pages describing, say, a river crossing when readers are waiting for an army of golems to take on the Nazis. A thrilling concept rendered dull by slack storytelling. Copyright Kirkus 2016 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.
