Babylon: a Novel of Jewish Captivity

The multi-generational Biblical saga of Sarah, her children and grandchildren, exiled to Babylon when King Nebuchadnezzar’s army conquers Judea and destroys the Temple. The novel also tells the story of Nebuchadnezzar’s ambitious children: their prescient dreams, interpreted by Daniel the prophet, palace intrigues, betrayal, and even regicide.
Overview } Advance Praise | Reviews | News & Interviews | Book Tour | Book an Author Visit | For Book Clubs
To purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org | Kindle | B&N eBook
Beyond the Ghetto Gates

Beyond the Ghetto Gates is a historical novel set during the turbulent days of Napoleon Bonaparte’s Italian campaign (1796-97). When French troops occupy the Italian port city of Ancona, freeing the city’s Jews from their repressive ghetto, it unleashes a whirlwind of progressivism and brutal backlash as two very different cultures collide. Mirelle, a young Jewish maiden, must choose between her duty – an arranged marriage to a wealthy Jewish merchant – and her love for a dashing French Catholic soldier. In the meantime, Francesca, a devout Catholic, must decide if she will honor her marriage vows to an abusive and murderous husband. Beyond the Ghetto Gates depicts how the Jews and Catholics of Ancona wrestle with ancient traditions, prejudices, and the challenges of a rapidly changing world.
Overview | Praise | Reviewers & Bloggers | News | Book tour | Book an Author Visit | Book Club Guide
To purchase: Bookshop.org | Amazon | B&N | Kindle | Nook
The Fruit of Her Hands: the story of Shira of Ashkenaz

Based on the life of the author’s thirteenth-century ancestor, Meir ben Baruch of Rothenberg, a renowned Jewish scholar of medieval Europe, this is the richly dramatic fictional story of Rabbi Meir’s wife, Shira, a devout but rebellious woman who preserves her religious traditions as she and her family witness the rise of antisemitism in Europe.
Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her works praise her in the gates. – Proverbs 31:31.
Overview | Read a Selection | Key Historic Dates | Family Tree | Praise
To purchase: Bookshop.org | Amazon | B&N | Kindle | Nook
In the Shadow of the Globe

An astonishing narrative poem using the colorful and daring characters of the Globe Theatre during the life of Shakespeare to create the incredible voices of its actors, bit players, poets, stage managers and lovelorn ladies of his day. Shakespeare, his wife, his Dark Lady and his poor dead boy all spring from the pages with fact and fiction intertwined into a virtuoso book that will redefine the classroom’s experience of Elizabethan studies. A new and provocative approach to a beloved subject.
Overview | Poems | Performances | Praise
To purchase: Amazon
And coming soon…
Napoleon’s Mirage: the sequel to Beyond the Ghetto Gates
A year has elapsed since Beyond the Ghetto Gates concluded. Daniel and Christophe head to an unknown destination with General Bonaparte’s forces. Napoleon and his men face a harsh and More than a year has elapsed since the ghetto gates were destroyed and Ancona’s Jewish community liberated by Napoleon’s troops. Yet instead of feeling free, Mirelle is ostracized–by the community, her best friend, even her mother– and labeled a “ruined woman.” As her efforts to nurture her family’s legacy are thwarted, she realizes she might have lost her last chance at love. Meanwhile Daniel, now a lieutenant in the French army, along with Christophe, the man responsible for Mirelle’s disgrace, set sail to an unknown destination with General Bonaparte’s forces. Napoleon and his men face a harsh and unforgiving landscape and new, implacable enemies, and Daniel’s faith and loyalty to the commander he once worshipped is put to the test.
Recent Comments