THE BOOK FAIR

Ellen Brazer 

Author:        Ellen Brazer

Published:    2012

Genre:          Historical Novel

Cover:           E-Book

Pages:           338

The author mixes history, fiction, and religious events in portraying the Bar Kochva revolt.  The revisionist novel, told through the lives of four brothers, two Jewish and two Roman, moves back and forth between Judea and Rome.

Brazer paints colorful depictions of Judea from the Temple to the desert sands, and Rome, from the Coliseum, to lush gardens along with descriptions of daily life including foods and clothing.  The author portrays both real personages and fictitious figures.

Jealousy and competition drives the story between the two Roman brothers, whose lives intertwine with one of the Jewish brothers taken to Rome.  Lively characters move about the action-oriented plot.  Love, medicine, the place of women, and slavery all converge in the story that ends somewhat abruptly.

However, though entertaining, the plot does not follow the time line of historical events nor accuracy in ascribed beliefs in Judaism.