Title: By the Waters of Babylon: A Captive’s Song – Psalm 137
Author: Mesu Andrews
Series: The Psalm series, book 2
Major Themes: Jewish History, Ancient Babylonians, Scythians
Synopsis: After narrowly surviving the siege of Jerusalem, Merari has to make it through the dangerous trip to Babylon and find a new life for herself.
We’ve had the audiobook of By the Waters of Babylon for quite a while now, but I never took time to listen to it until I had some painting to do one day, and an audiobook fit the bill for entertainment perfectly. I’ve read several books by Andrews in the past; Isaiah’s Legacy was the most recent read, and I left that one with very mixed feelings, to say the least. Though I loved her writing style, way of drawing me into the setting, characters, and the way she showed the history through the story, I didn’t appreciate the sin and mentions of other things I found there. Years ago, I read another book by her as well, and was so annoyed at some of the romantic stuff in there that I swore off all romance books for a while! So I approached this story with some trepidation…I’d had two somewhat bad experiences with her books, but Mom had appreciated at least one of hers, so I thought I ought to try again.
Merari is a Judean who lives in the lower city of Jerusalem. She’s trying to scrape together a living for herself, her sister, and her darling son, but it’s tough—and with the Babylonians hemming the city in from all sides, the food is getting more and more difficult to find. Meanwhile, outside the city, the Babylonians and their allies are getting very close to invading the city. The siege has gone on long enough, and when the walls are finally breached, Idan, a Scythian prince, leads his men through to victory. As they work their way systematically through the city, killing anyone who offers resistance, he stumbles into a humble home—and finds a deathly sick woman beside some horrific remains. But this woman seems like more than just an average Judean woman; she reminds him of one of his goddesses, so he takes her back to his camp and carefully tends her. How can he share his conviction that she is the goddess with his men? Will she bring him the fortune he so desperately craves, if he cares for her well enough? And as for Merari—how is she to respond when she wakes up to discover she’s been placed on a level far above the humble station she’s always lived in? What will become of her when, eventually, they must find out she is no goddess, but a poor Judaean?
By the Waters of Babylon tells a striking story of the fall of Jerusalem and the captive’s weary march to Babylon. Based on one of my favorite psalms/songs, I dearly hoped it would live up to my expectations, and it did. Andrews redeemed herself in my eyes with this book. Though there was potential for details about awful things, she never went into much description of them, and I really appreciated that. Even the one thing throughout this book that was truly horrific is only hinted at here and there until you finally get a picture of what had transpired. The setting and characters were very well-done, and I appreciated how the history we know was pulled together with a fictitious story to create a memorable tale.
WARNING: Ch. 1: A man is trying to get a woman to his home by flirting with and threatening her, and a man is falsely accused and dragged off to prison, with his airway partially blocked. Ch. 3: The end of a several-year siege with lots of people being killed, and there is talk of a Scythian goddess (this continues through several chapters). Around ch. 4, a man holds and comforts a woman, even though she isn’t his wife. Ch. 5: women’s things are mentioned and someone talks about a son who was killed, implying something horrific had happened. Ch. 10: A woman remembers she killed her sister; later, someone tells of how a woman killed a boy and ate part of him. Ch. 12 has a mention of sleeping with a man; ch. 13 has a fight and a woman has a dagger held against her throat; ch. 14 tells of people being killed; ch. 15 has an attack by animals (apparently sent by God); in ch. 17, a woman has a dagger held to her throat again and people die of a plague. In ch. 19, a man is badly beaten (almost unrecognizable), and ch. 29 has a kiss.
Age levels:
Reading Independently—Adults
Links to buy this book:
Amazon: Paperback | Kindle | Audible Audiobook (unabridged)
AbeBooks: View Choices on AbeBooks.com
Book Depository: Paperback
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