The Garden of Ruth
EVA ETZIONI-HALEVY

Plume, $14      

Etzioni-Halevy, an Israeli sociologist, and author of The Song of Hannah, returns to the ancient Middle East for an imaginative second novel riffing on the story of the biblical Ruth. (Ruth, a widowed Moabite princess, converted to Judaism, married Boaz and gave birth to the future king David—but only after a mysterious man, known only as the man who was by law next in line to inherit her family property, declined to marry her.) As Etzioni-Halevy's story opens, Osnath, a head-strong and literate 15-year-old girl, discovers on a visit to Bethlehem an old piece of scroll, addressed to a woman “redhaired and fair” and written by “the man to whom you are pledged.” It begs her to “abandon him, who is unworthy of you.” Intrigued, Osnath proposes to Ruth's great-grandson Eliab, in whose scroll room Osnath discovered the text, that Osnath research the mystery. Eliab discourages her; she persists. After being “wickedly seduced” by Eliab, she falls in love with hisbrother David, who spurns her. Osnath then reluctantly returns to Eliab, who promises to unravel the “web of lies . . . as sweet as honey” that surrounds Ruth's life—but at a price. The mystery is intriguing, and Etzioni-Halevy depicts ancient women chafing at limited choices with verve.  

P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y . S E P T E M B E R 4 , 2 0 0 6 .