This unlikely woman never expected to sit on a throne, but Adonai had a different plan. Through Salome Alexandra, piety and blessing returned to Jerusalem after dark decades of strife and bloodshed.
Born in the small village of Modein, a town made famous by the warrior Maccabees, Salome Alexandra knows better than to harbor grand dreams for her future. She pales in comparison to her beautiful older sister, and though she learns to read at an early age, girls are not valued for their intellectual ability. But when her father and sister are killed, John Hyrcanus, a distant relative, invites Salome and her mother to live with his family in Jerusalem, where her thirst for knowledge is noticed and indulged. When her guardian betroths her to a pagan prince, she questions HaShem’s plan. When Hyrcanus finally marries her to a boy half her age, she questions her guardian’s sanity. But though Salome Alexandra spends much of her life as a pawn ordered about by powerful men, she learns that a woman committed to HaShem can change the world.
“Readers who admire the biblical Esther will enjoy this tale of another brave woman playing a pivotal role in the survival of her people.” —Booklist
