BOOK OF THE WEEK: LAND OF SILENCE BY TESSA AFSHAR

Land of Silence is a book written by Tessa Afshar and published by Tyndale House.

In the opening chapter, readers are introduced to the heroine, Elianna, a teenage girl with a younger brother. Elianna is betrothed to Ethan as a result of a mutual agreement between their fathers, who have been friends for as long as she could remember.

Due in part to a fault of hers, Elianna loses her younger brother under unfortunate circumstances and this results in a strained relationship with her parents,  particularly her father.

Subsequent happenings lead Elianna to struggle with self doubt, and the arrival of a Roman Officer, Decimus Calvus, causes a complication in her relationship with Ethan. Things get worse when her menstrual cycle is affected and she begins bleeding regularly and profusely, causing her to become an object of scorn and ridicule in the community. It takes a chance meeting with a prophet in Judea for Elianna to be restored and delivered from the land of silence.

I like the book’s cover as well as its opening chapter. I love how Tessa Afshar takes her time to create book covers with Middle Eastern themes, which form the setting in almost all her novels. The opening chapter is quite poignant and creates a thirst on the part of the reader for more chapters.

The next few chapters come along fine as well, until one gets somewhere around the ninth chapter. From that point, the pace becomes too slow and the story begins to drag. I understand that good stories need to be detailed and to have depth, however, I think the book has way too many details, especially with regards to Elianna’s family business.  I must add though that anyone particularly interested in the production and sale of textile materials like wool and silk will not have a problem with the amount of detail but may be rather captivated by it.

Again, I find some scenes in the book to be overly dramatic, for example; the heroine tends to gasp rather a lot, even at inopportune times. Scenes like this made it a bit difficult for me to connect with the characters.

I think the climax of the book is its strongest point, and it is at that moment readers get to realize that the story is actually based on the hemorrhaging woman described in the bible. This is a testament to Tessa Afshar's writing skills, I think. The fact that she is able to build a story of over 100,000 words, based just on a few lines in the Bible, is a proof of her writing prowess.
Status: Recommended, provided you’ve read a previous Tessa Afshar novel. It’s available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0198UNULS/ref=pd_aw_sim_351_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=QBCV5SK6ZVMQQ48MZ6F6

Set for release in August 2018:

Can't wait to read this juicy looking book with the intriguing title. Can you?