HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Drawing In the Dust by Zoe Klein
Loading...

Drawing In the Dust (original 2010; edition 2010)

by Zoe Klein (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
21520125,647 (3.81)6
Brilliant archaeologist Page Brookstone is convinced bones speak, yet none of the ancient remnants she has unearthed during her twelve years of toiling at Israel's storied battlegrounds of Megiddo has delivered the life-altering message she so craves. Which is why the story of Ibrahim and Aisha Barakat, a young Arab couple who implore Page to excavate the grounds beneath their house in Anatot, instantly intrigues her. The Barakats claim the ghosts of two lovers haunt their home, overwhelming everyone who enters with love and desire. Ignoring the scorn of her peers, Page investigates the site, where she is seduced by an undeniable force. Once Ibrahim presents Page with hard evidence of a cistern beneath his living room, she has no choice but to uncover the secret of the spirits. It is not long before Page makes miraculous discoveries-the bones of the deeply troubled prophet Jeremiah locked in an eternal embrace with a mysterious woman named Anatiya. Buried with the entwined skeletons is a collection of Anatiya's scrolls, whose mystical words challenge centuries-old interpretations of the prophet's story and create a worldwide fervor that threatens to silence the truth about the lovers forever. Caught in a forbidden romance of her own, and under constant siege from religious zealots and ruthless critics, Page risks her life and professional reputation to deliver Anatiya's passionate message to the world. In doing so, she discovers that to preserve her future in the land of the living, she must shake off the dust of the dead and let go of her own painful past. As poignant and thought-provoking as the beloved bestsellers The Red Tent and People of the Book, Zo Klein's historically rich debut novel is a lyrical and unexpected journey that will stay with listeners forever.… (more)
Member:Eliz12
Title:Drawing In the Dust
Authors:Zoe Klein (Author)
Info:Gallery Books (2010), Edition: 1, 384 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:1/2
Tags:None

Work Information

Drawing in the Dust by Zoe Klein (2010)

None
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 6 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 20 (next | show all)
Richly layered provocative story. Beautifully written and completely absorbing. I loved it! ( )
  SoubhiKiewiet | Mar 20, 2018 |
I so did not like this book. The story was silly and the characters unbelievable. But the most insufferable was the writing: repetitive and filled with cliches. I really did not like the author's constant admiration for her own work, the "Scroll of Anatiya," which her characters praise throughout the text. The melodrama! (So many characters are "weeping.") The errors (I sincerely doubt a group of Orthodox Jews would attend the wedding of a Jewish girl and an Arab.) The bizarre ending. Really dreadful. ( )
  Eliz12 | Mar 11, 2017 |
Paige Brookstone, on a sabbatical from a separate dig with her mentor, unearths the prophet Jeremiah’s bones under an Arab couple’s home. But there are another set of remains intertwined with Jeremiah’s, and the discovery unlocks the humanity that is otherwise overlooked in a Biblical prophet. The find, while fueling a religious and racial battle in an unstable Middle East, also sparks Paige’s near lost passion for archeology and love for life.

Zoe Klein’s [Drawing in the Dust] could be overlooked as just another faith-based story in a growing market. But Klein examines how faith is often deeply submerged in the psyche, uncovered only as the physical world’s debris is brushed away. Jeremiah, the quarry in Paige’s search, comes alive as a flesh-and-blood human as she discovers his long buried love love for a servant girl. His prophecy takes on new meaning as their story is sifted through the sands of time.

Klein’s other accomplishment, beyond giving life to Jeremiah beyond the Bible’s pages, is her construction of another narrative, written by Anatiya, the servant girl who loved Jeremiah. Anatiya’s poetic verse, as written by Klein, sings with a rare beauty, and is so consistent with its Biblical counterpart from Jeremiah that it seems to be completely real. The result is that the Biblical and fictional characters come alive with Paige’s own faith. It’s not a stereotypical and fundamental faith, but one that is born from life.

Bottom Line: Faith and religion as viewed from an ordinary perspective, in anything but an ordinary place and amid anything but ordinary circumstances.

4 bones!!!!! ( )
  blackdogbooks | Dec 31, 2015 |
Well written, lovely story. I loved the vibrancy of the characters although I couldn't really identify with the lead character at the end because she flaked out a bit. Intriguing mystery with a dash of history and a heavy note of love thrown in. ( )
  KEFeeney | Dec 6, 2015 |
Well written, lovely story. I loved the vibrancy of the characters although I couldn't really identify with the lead character at the end because she flaked out a bit. Intriguing mystery with a dash of history and a heavy note of love thrown in. ( )
  KEFeeney | Dec 6, 2015 |
Showing 1-5 of 20 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
For Rachmiel,
Rhythm of creation,

For Kinneret,
Queen of the mermaids,

For Zimra,
Our sparkle,

For my husband Jonathan,
My unending courtship.

I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem,
Adore to weeping,
Love to laughing,
Desire to praising.
Tickle, giggle, kiss!
Adonai my God,
For one moment in love,
Let alone a thousand,
Let alone my life,
For the honor of raising and loving
Children in love,
Praise of You is ever upon my lips.
First words
Just above and to the left of the basketball net, across a gym filled with dancing students, hung the clock, faintly glowing like a full moon through a polluted night, calmly eating the seconds before the new year.
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

Brilliant archaeologist Page Brookstone is convinced bones speak, yet none of the ancient remnants she has unearthed during her twelve years of toiling at Israel's storied battlegrounds of Megiddo has delivered the life-altering message she so craves. Which is why the story of Ibrahim and Aisha Barakat, a young Arab couple who implore Page to excavate the grounds beneath their house in Anatot, instantly intrigues her. The Barakats claim the ghosts of two lovers haunt their home, overwhelming everyone who enters with love and desire. Ignoring the scorn of her peers, Page investigates the site, where she is seduced by an undeniable force. Once Ibrahim presents Page with hard evidence of a cistern beneath his living room, she has no choice but to uncover the secret of the spirits. It is not long before Page makes miraculous discoveries-the bones of the deeply troubled prophet Jeremiah locked in an eternal embrace with a mysterious woman named Anatiya. Buried with the entwined skeletons is a collection of Anatiya's scrolls, whose mystical words challenge centuries-old interpretations of the prophet's story and create a worldwide fervor that threatens to silence the truth about the lovers forever. Caught in a forbidden romance of her own, and under constant siege from religious zealots and ruthless critics, Page risks her life and professional reputation to deliver Anatiya's passionate message to the world. In doing so, she discovers that to preserve her future in the land of the living, she must shake off the dust of the dead and let go of her own painful past. As poignant and thought-provoking as the beloved bestsellers The Red Tent and People of the Book, Zo Klein's historically rich debut novel is a lyrical and unexpected journey that will stay with listeners forever.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.81)
0.5 1
1
1.5
2 3
2.5 1
3 10
3.5 4
4 16
4.5 1
5 13

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 204,711,573 books! | Top bar: Always visible