Harlots of Jericho

Harlots of Jericho is a historical/biblical novel set in ancient Canaan, centering on the lives of two lowly prostitutes. In a first-person account, Hayyuma tells how her happy childhood is lost forever when she is sold into prostitution by her own mother for the price of three rabbits. Her only joy lies in the companionship of Rahab, a colleague whose affections and loyalties are too often fickle and self-serving. For a time, a love affair between the two women becomes the only means to defy the degradation to which they are both subjected. Hayyuma (whose name means "life" in Ugaritic Canaanite) is completely uneducated, although she has a vivid imagination and a fondness for ancient stories of heroes and gods. Only once has she seen the world beyond the city walls, when she was four years old. Her days are a round of endless trips in stifling heat to and from the city's life-giving spring, a jug perched on her head. Her nights are marked by turns with cold-hearted clients under the tyranny of Arhalbu, the Babylonian master of the brothel. When her daughter Tahuru is born, Hayyuma yearns to recreate the happy family life she thought she would never have again, and also to spare her daughter from the fate she herself has undergone as a brothel slave. But the threat to Tahuru becomes much more immediate when Jericho is placed under siege by an invading army that has pledged to destroy all its inhabitants. The invaders are secretly helped by Rahab, whose fascination for a new religion has caused her to turn on her fellow citizens. Now Hayyuma must choose whether to rely on Rahab as a last desperate hope to save Tahuru, or betray her former lover to the King of Jericho. The novel is pervaded with a central irony that defies the reader's expectations, since the "harlot" Rahab is enshrined in the biblical Book of Joshua as a heroine, as the only resident of Jericho to give allegiance to the God of the Israelites and thus escape torment and death when the city falls. In Harlots of Jericho, the familiar Old Testament story is retold from a humanistic perspective. The narrative is meant to provide a voice for a people who have been too often neglected in fiction, or anywhere else for that matter: the commonplace, lowborn victims of the Canaanite genocide. By extension, the confusion and anguish of these characters reflects that of all such victims, in whatever time or place. Throughout the story, Hayyuma and her companions are continually trying to understand what is happening to them. They are baffled by the muttering of the priests, by the empty pronouncements of voices of authority, by conflicting accounts of the will and nature of the gods. Hayyuma's efforts to ingratiate herself to Rahab in order to save her eleven-year-old daughter's life lead to her own act of betrayal, when she reports Rahab to the authorities for hosting the Israelite spies who have prepared the city for destruction. All betrayals-of friendship, love and the city itself-come to a climax on the final day of the siege, when the fabled walls of Jericho are destined to collapse and all the inhabitants, save Rahab and her family, will perforce be put to the sword. Harlots of Jericho is a tale for our own time, and for our newly diversified views regarding traditional depictions of exploitation and genocide. Throughout the novel, the introspective Hayyuma muses on the meaning of her wretched existence and the place of humanity in a universe ruled by heartless and implacable forces. Only an eleventh-hour miracle, brought about by the least likely character in the story, can save Hayyuma's hope for victory over a lifetime of despair: her brilliant but moody daughter Tahuru. The salvation of this girl, and the sacrifices that are required to bring it about, become the ultimate expression of a human spirit that yearns to transcend the lowest instincts of our species.