Ilana's Love

ASA OF NAIN longs for the day when his childhood friend Ilana-the only one of his peers who accepts him as he is-will become his wife. But her father, the strict head of the synagogue school in Asa's village, has promised her to the bread merchant of Tzippori, an older man she does not love. When the controversial rabbi Jesus of Nazareth visits Nain and leaves the villagers in awe of the power of God, Ilana follows him to ask a kindness on Asa's behalf. Her day in Jesus' camp is anything but what she-or Asa-expects, and the events that follow test the limits of Ilana's love. In an easy to read style, Laurel West reveals the widely rippling impact of Jesus' heart-to-heart exchanges as no other biblical-era novelist has done. She takes the reader into the life of Jesus through the eyes of one of the thousands with whom he spoke face to face. While carefully guarding the purity of Scripture, her pen dances lovingly with it, leaving the reader with new depths of understanding.