This book con­tin­ues in the series of Bib­li­cal women whose lives have been beau­ti­ful­ly imag­ined by Marek Hal­ter. This one tells of the Jew­ish life of Miri­am, from her ear­ly child­hood through the cru­ci­fix­ion of her son by the Romans. This easy to read Bib­li­cal fic­tion focus­es on Miriam’s (Roman name Mary) rela­tion­ships with her par­ents in her home in Galilee, with Rachel and Miri­am of Mag­dala, with her family’s friends Joseph and Hal­va, and with the wise men of her time. There are beau­ti­ful descrip­tions of the peo­ple and land­scape of Israel. The cir­cum­stances of Miriam’s first meet­ing with the infa­mous Barab­bas, a known thief and rev­o­lu­tion­ary against King Herod and the Roman occu­piers of Israel, and Miriam’s sub­se­quent per­son­al and polit­i­cal deal­ings with him, make for quite a live­ly sto­ry. We learn about the dif­fer­ent Jew­ish fac­tions of the time includ­ing the Zealots, Phar­isees, and Saducees, and about the crafts­men, farm­ers, and the illit­er­ate Am-Ha’aretz. The posi­tion of the San­hedrin under Roman occu­pa­tion is dis­cussed as well as the major­i­ty view of the Jews who felt they were being pun­ished for their sins and dis­uni­ty and yearned for a mes­si­ah to deliv­er them from their trag­ic lives.