Joseph, Rachel’s Son

Title: Joseph, Rachel’s Son
Author: Mark Timothy Morgan
Major Themes: Joseph, Family Read-alouds, Biblical Fiction, Christian Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Ancient Times, Egypt, Israel
Synopsis: The story of Joseph is retold here, well fleshed out but still true to the Bible.

I’m always a little leery of Biblical fiction, as I’ve mentioned before. I still read it sometimes, though, because sometimes I find a real winner of a book that way. When I came across Joseph, Rachel’s Son available for review, I decided to check it out—but wasn’t at all sure I would like it. This time, I was pleasantly surprised.

The story begins as Jacob readies his family to flee from his father-in-law Laban. Jacob carefully planned the flight in order to best protect his children, and particularly Joseph, the child of his favorite wife, from possible vengeance. Once the confrontation with Laban was over, along came Uncle Esau—how would the family escape from his desire for vengeance? Then, the family settled in Canaan. Their life continued to be stormy, until things came to a head between Joseph and his brothers.

Suddenly, Joseph found himself sold to slave traders and on his way to Egypt! He had to learn many lessons on the way to his new life, and then had unexpected temptations to face once he reached that faraway land. A surprising turn of events found him at the head of the country, and he was stunned one day to recognize his brothers, begging for help! How should he respond to those who had wronged him?

I really liked this book. The author has done a superb job of sticking to the Biblical account, while fleshing it out to make it into a fascinating novel. I really appreciated the way he handled the scenes with Potipher’s wife. It would have been very easy to make this part of the story into something I don’t want to read, but he used great discretion. There was actually nothing in this book that I did not like, which is very rare when it comes to fiction based on Bible stories. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants a fresh look at the story of Joseph.

I received a free ecopy of this book from NetGalley and chose to write a review.

No warnings!

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