When I was first approached by PR agency Shelton Interactive and asked
if I’d be interested in reading and reviewing a new, soon-to-be-published work by
author Ted Dekker, I initially and immediately wanted to say a big, fat NO.
Granted, I had NEVER read a book by Dekker, although
I’d seen the majority of his writings displayed on the shelves of township and church
libraries, and local bookstores. But it was my understanding that his books were haunting, intense thrillers
which are SO not my genre of choice.
However, the summary the publicist provided piqued my
interest, so I decided to read and review A.D. 30, Dekker’s latest literary
offering, which is due to hit the shelves on Oct. 28.
And after all my foolish apprehension and yes, I admit, a harshly judgmental attitude, I must say that I’m so glad I did! What a story!!
A.D. 30 is a fictional novel set during the beginning
of Jesus’ ministry. It’s the captivating story of Maviah, a young woman who is
the illegitimate, outcast daughter of Rami bin Malik, a well-known and powerful
sheik to the Bedouin people of Arabia. She, along with her infant son, live
with her father, who has despised and rejected Maviah her entire life, and with her
father’s Nabataen wife, Nashquya, the only one in the house who accepts and
loves Maviah.
After a series of sorrowful occurrences and horrific, action-packed
events take place in her desert hometown of Dumah, Maviah escapes the city under siege, and finds
herself on a journey to Palestine, accompanied by two of her father’s best warriors,
Saba and Judah. Once there, her mission is to find King Herod Antipas and form an
alliance with him in order to save her father, who has been captured by an enemy tribe
known as the Thamud, and the Bedouin people.
But unexpectedly, Maviah also encounters another King along
the way – and quite a different King at that, who speaks of a Kingdom that is a far cry from any Maviah has ever known. His name is Jesus, or Yeshua, the Hebrew name
to which He is referred throughout this book.
Each encounter she has with Yeshua, each incredible and
radical teaching of His she hears, each amazing miracle she is privy to, slowly
begins to change Maviah’s life dramatically.
And finally, it is her faith and
trust in Yeshua and His Way that will ultimately heal her and help her to deal
with the surprise twists and dangerous turns that occur as she seeks to
accomplish her all-important mission.
What I consider a ‘good read’ and a great book is generally
one whose storyline causes me to carry the book with me wherever I go during
the day so I can continue reading, and which keeps me reading far into the night after everyone in my family
has gone to sleep. A.D. 30 is one such book. I could not put it down (although obviously, I eventually had to)!
In the micro biography on the book’s jacket, it states
that Ted Dekker ‘is known for stories that combine adrenaline-laced plots
with incredible confrontations between good and evil.’ I certainly found that to be true here.
Also, I absolutely love when a book enables you to
experience what the characters themselves are experiencing – the physical, the
mental and the emotional. The external and the internal.
And that happens for me here with A.D. 30, as Dekker
paints an enormous linguistic mural, using a very fine, yet wonderfully detailed brush. His
vivid, colorful descriptions and vast historical knowledge immediately swept me
right into the times, the action, the excitement, the landscape and the emotions of this
story.
The story itself is a little over 400 pages long, but for me,
the real gem here is the 6 pages that make up the introduction that Dekker writes, entitled, ‘My
Journey Into A.D. 30.’
Here, we’re
afforded a tiny glimpse into Dekker’s early life as the child of missionary
parents, and how and why he came to write A.D. 30. From this portion of the
intro alone, it would seem he wrote this as much for himself as he did for the
benefit of other people:
‘For
ten years I dreamed of entering the life of Jesus through story, not as a Jew
familiar with the customs of the day, but as an outsider, because we are all
outsiders today. I wanted to hear his teaching and see his power. I wanted to
know what he taught about how we should live; how we might rise above all the
struggles that we all face in this life, not just in the next life after we
die.'
For those of us who feel or who have ever felt like an
outcast -- invisible, betrayed, forgotten, unloved and abused -- A.D. 30 is also a story
of hope and healing, through faith in Yeshua, one that we may be surprised to find (or not) parallel to our own
life stories, although the details will obviously be vastly different.
I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a powerful and inspiring novel to read. Accept Dekker's invitation to 'enter this story if you like and see if you can see what Maviah saw. It may change the way you understand your Father, your Master, yourself, and your world.'
I’m so grateful and honored to have been given the
opportunity to read and review A.D. 30, so many thanks go out to publicist Sara Pence at Shelton Interactive.
