Pearl in the Sand

This week, the


Christian Fiction Blog Alliance


is introducing


Pearl In The Sand Moody Publishers (September 1, 2010)


by Tessa Afshar





ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tessa Afshar was born in a nominally Muslim family in Iran and lived there for the first fourteen years of her life. She survived English boarding school for girls before moving to the United States permanently. Her conversion to Christianity in her mid-twenties changed the course of her life forever. Tessa holds an MDIV from Yale University where she served as co-Chair of the Evangelical Fellowship at the

Divinity School. She has spent the last twelve years in full and part-time Christian work and currently serves as the leader of Women’s and Prayer ministries at a church in Connecticut.





ABOUT THE BOOK

Can a Canaanite harlot who has made her livelihood by looking desirable to men make a fitting wife for one of the leaders of Israel? Shockingly, the Bible’s answer is yes. At the age of fifteen Rahab is forced into prostitution by her beloved father. In her years as a courtesan, she learns to mistrust men and hate herself. Into the emotional turmoil of her world walks Salmone, a respected leader of Judah. Through the tribulations of a stormy relationship, Rahab and Salmone learn the true

source of one another’s worth in God and find healing from fear and rejection.



If you would like to read the first chapter of Pearl In The Sand, go HERE



Watch the book video:






Pearl in the Sand by Tessa Afshar is top notch biblical fiction about one of Jesus' ancestors. Rahab was sold into prostitution at just fifteen to support her family. But their salvation came at a high price: she feels as though only her body has value, and her family views her with jaded eyes and judges her harshly for the choice they forced her to make. She uses her intelligence to build a successful inn within the walls of her home in Jericho. Because of her troubled life, she has rejected the gods of her people, but when she hears about the Hebrews' god who freed them from Egyptian slavery and is helping them to destroy the most powerful nations in Canaan, she wonders if this god will also see her as worthless. She helps the Hebrew spies, risking her own life, which saves her family from the destruction the rest of the city of Jericho faces, but now she must try and make her new home in a people that see her as soiled because of her past and suspicious because of her nationality. Afsha truly makes Rahab come to life, and she is instantly a sympathetic character. It's a moving story of a broken woman becoming healed by the love of God and a good man, and is therefore, timeless. Readers will gain new understanding of an intriguing and enigmatic biblical character in a fresh and fascinating way.