Hope of Israel reviews

Three wonderful authors have reviewed Hope of Israel in recent months. 


DeAnna Cameron, author of The Belly Dancer and Dancing at the Chance, wrote this about Hope of Israel on Goodreads in September:

The heart of this novel is a tender romance between a young Jew and a young Catholic who are united at first by the common experience of holding to faiths that must be practiced in secret in seventeenth-century England. What will keep this story burning in my memory, however, is the meticulously researched history of Jews' plight in Europe and the questions the narrative raises about the nature of faith and the sacrifices we make in its name. This is a poignant story with compelling characters, many of whom truly lived.

Award-winning journalist, Pamela Winnick, is currently revising her debut novel, A Time to Part. She wrote this about Hope of Israel in November: 


How sheltered we Westerns are, how we take for granted our freedom to worship--or not--the religion of our choosing--not our parents' or our governments'. Imagine being tortured for your faith, burned at the stakes--all on the thinnest suspicion that beneath your protective Catholic armor beats the heart of a Jew. O'Sullivan's book is a "must read" for anyone of any religion, a fascinating tale a young boy named Domingo whose life is stripped of Catholic ritual, who gleans from his family's odd behavior that he isn't Catholic after all, that all along his parents faked their true religion so that they might be protected from the cruelty of monarchs. This fine author puts us in this young boy's shoes as he witnesses the fate of those he does not yet know are his co-religionists. Right from the beginning, her writing reaches from the page and grabs us with evocative prose: "Domingo dashed behind a matron's skirt, his chest constricted with fear....The air around him, thick and hot, smelled of urine, wine and sweat. Black flies alighted on every still thing....They reminded Domingo of priests, droning on in their self-important, lazy manner...."

The author proceeds to take us on the young boy's journey...to Amsterdam, a protectorate for God's "chosen", then to Jew-hating London amidst Britain's own Civil War, itself a fascinating subject. I don't wish to spoil the book for potential readers, but suffice it to say that his Domingo's journeys are treacherous! And, on top of this, he's called to decide for himself where his own heart belongs. Anyone of mixed heritage will understand. (These days, with all the intermarriage, there are so many of us...)

In the end, O'Sullivan's plot is nourished by her scholarship, a knowledge she shares so generously with her readers. It's what's best about historical fiction: to be entertained as one learns. We can only hope that this author brings us more.

Today, Julie Cantrell, author of Into the Free, posted a review of Hope of Israel on Amazon.com:


I was just given this book as a gift and couldn't put it down. O'Sullivan is a time traveler, and I was thrilled to go along for the ride. She manages to pack more detail into one sentence than many authors do in an entire novel, and I never tired of it. Her characters are rich and interesting, the plot is intense, but for me...I was drawn in by the incredible scenes. I would close the book and have to readjust to life in this century. Anyone interested in history, particularly the role religion has played in cultures across time, should grab this book. It is a brilliant tale told by a novelist (debut? can it be?) who surely has more up her sleeve. I wait eagerly for the next one! Bravo!


Thanks so much, DeAnna, Pamela, and Julie!

Roger Williams and the wall of separation between church and government

Smithsonian Magazine has a wonderful article in this month's issue about Roger Williams's physical and intellectual journey in the English colonies.

John Barry writes:


Williams believed that preventing error in religion was impossible, for it required people to interpret God’s law, and people would inevitably err. He therefore concluded that government must remove itself from anything that touched upon human beings’ relationship with God. A society built on the principles Massachusetts espoused would lead at best to hypocrisy, because forced worship, he wrote, “stincks in God’s nostrils.” At worst, such a society would lead to a foul corruption—not of the state, which was already corrupt, but of the church.

The dispute defined for the first time two fault lines that have run through American history ever since. The first, of course, is over the proper relation between government and what man has made of God—the church. The second is over the relation between a free individual and government authority—the shape of liberty.

Read more of Barry's piece on Roger Williams: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/God-Government-and-Roger-Williams-Big-Idea.html#ixzz1hJ46dL9I

Goodbye Christopher Hitchens 1949 - 2011

"I am typing this having just had an injection to try to reduce the pain in my arms, hands, and fingers. The chief side effect of this pain is numbness in the extremities, filling me with the not irrational fear that I shall lose the ability to write. Without that ability, I feel sure in advance, my “will to live” would be hugely attenuated. I often grandly say that writing is not just my living and my livelihood but my very life, and it’s true. Almost like the threatened loss of my voice, which is currently being alleviated by some temporary injections into my vocal folds, I feel my personality and identity dissolving as I contemplate dead hands and the loss of the transmission belts that connect me to writing and thinking."

Excerpt taken from "Trial of the Will" by Christopher Hitchens and published on dailyhitchens.com on Dec. 7, 2011.

Amazon: Goliath or Samson?

Amazon.com has now added to its list of foes independent bookstores, 'brick and mortar' bookstores, and authors who support those bookstores.

More interesting than the actual opinion pieces about this new battle are the reader comments. Those who view Amazon.com as a Goliath bent to destroy "literary culture" through economic bullying plan on boycotting the retail giant. 

Author, Richard Russo's passionate defense of local and independent booksellers has become a rallying cry for team Goliath.

Others see Amazon.com as a Samson figure - a hero with the strength to smash the temple of the publishing industry and humble its bookseller minions. Slate.com's technology columnist Farhad Manjoo responded to Richard Russo's New York Times piece here. He writes that, contrary to Russo's claim that Amazon.com seeks to destroy "real-life literary culture" and "a piece of American culture", Amazon.com promotes literary culture by making it more accessible to readers (because of their cheaper prices and instant e-book availability).

Interestingly, Manjoo also points out that Amazon.com is good for authors too. "Amazon has also been instrumental in helping authors create more books." With its willingness to sell shorts and self-published materials, Amazon is no enemy to writers. Team Samson tends to view Amazon.com as a hero leading those shut out of "literary culture" to the promised land of book sales despite not being consecrated by the publishing industry.

Darcie Chan's success story

Alexandra Alter's feature on Darcie Chan "How I Became a Best-Selling Author" in the Wall Street Journal book section is an interesting read for aspiring authors.

However, Publisher's Marketplace says this about Alter's article:

"Unfortunately the article suffers from some NYT-esque pejoratives and errors of fact, so the account of publisher discussions is open to some interpretation."


According to Alter, Darcie's best-selling novel was rejected by more than 100 agents. She published herself through Amazon and has sold nearly half a million copies.

Check out her website and The Mill River Recluse - only $0.99 on Kindle!

The war between Amazon and the traditional publishing industry gets more and more interesting by the day.