From Publishers Weekly
As restless nomads wandering the Judean hills after Moses led them out of Egypt, the ancient Hebrews with their invisible, monotheistic god must have seemed strange to the idol-worshipping peoples surrounding them. So they are to Hivai, a Canaanite soothsayer who spends seven years in a Hebrew camp after his native city of Gibeon is besieged by nameless invaders. Hareven ( The Miracle Hater ) magically evokes the birth throes of the Jewish people through the eyes of this skeptical outsider for whom the old gods no longer work. In Gibeon, Hivai had slept with his teenage daughter and prophesied by reading human entrails; returning home, he discovers he has been branded a traitor and flees Gibeon again. Neither a Hebrew nor a Canaanite now, he befriends a mute urchin boy and carves out a lonely existence, bringing this short, poetic novel to a bittersweet close.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
A work of historic imagination, Prophet is set during the time of the Gibeonites and roughly follows the biblical story that appears in the Old Testament's Book of Judges. Hivai, the Gibeonite prophet, disembowels a slave child and in the smoldering mess sees the destruction of Gibeon by the conquering nation of Ai. Disguised, he leaves Gibeon along with a group of elders to discover the lay of the land. Eventually, after the elders return home, he joins the wandering Hebrews, nomadic shepherds who teach him their language and mores. He is stunned to learn that the God of Moses prohibits murder and is invisible. Hivai leaves after seven years, still in search of a true prophecy and a new god. The ancient landscape of the Judean hills and the daily life of several nomadic tribes during early biblical times are portrayed with startling simplicity. Hareven's parable on moral verities in this retelling of the biblical narrative is inspired. This is the third of her 11 books to have been translated into English.
- Molly Abramowitz, Silver Spring, Md.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
