Many days we received gifts from my father: rare citrus imported from the north, sweet within their bitter rinds. It was all I hoped it never occurred to me that any other aspect of her beauty might be granted a mortal twice on this earth.
I hoped my hands and feet would be as slender as hers. The trickle of rain over the highland terraces couldn’t match the music of her beaded hems nor the best frankincense of Hadramawt compete with her perfume.ĭrowsing on her sofa in the hot afternoon, I would twine my fingers with hers and admire the turquoise of her rings. Bronze-skinned with brows like dove’s wings and lips for whispering prayers, my mother was the most exquisite thing in all of Saba. On the rare occasion that she took her seat beside Father’s in the Hall of Judgment, the chamber swelled like a tide drawn by the darkened moon. No king would choose a wife from his own tribe when he could strengthen alliance with another.īut I saw the way their gazes followed her whenever she appeared in the palace porticoes, their conversations drifting to suspended silence until she passed from sight. They said she enchanted my father, that he made her his consort with a clouded mind. My mother, Ismeni, was born under the glimmer of the Dog Star, when men become disoriented by its light. An explosive retelling of the legendary king and queen and the nations that shaped history. But neither ruler has anticipated the clash of agendas, gods, and passion that threatens to ignite-and ruin-them both. With tensions ready to erupt within her own borders and the future of her nation at stake, the one woman who can match wits with Solomon undertakes the journey of a lifetime in a daring bid to test and win the king. Solomon, the brash new king of Israel famous for his wealth and wisdom, will not be denied the tribute of the world-or of Sheba’s queen. But now new alliances to the North threaten the trade routes that are the lifeblood of her nation. Her realm stretches west across the Red Sea into land wealthy in gold, frankincense, and spices. In the tenth century BC, the new Queen of Sheba has inherited her father’s throne and all its riches at great personal cost.
That is the tale you were meant to believe. The tale of a queen conquered by a king and god both before returning to her own land laden with gifts. There is the story you know: A foreign queen, journeying north with a caravan of riches to pay tribute to a king favored by the One God. A powerful new novel of love, power, and the questions at the heart of existence by the author of the award-winning “brilliant” ( Library Journal) and “masterful” ( Publishers Weekly) Iscariot.
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