Snakesleeper

by Ann Chamberlin

"“With chutzpah and literary grace,” said the reviewer in The Salt Lake Tribune, “Ann Chamberlin re-creates King David’s court” in this novel of biblical history. “Reminiscent of. . . Mary Renault or Marion Zimmer Bradley,” said Of a Like Mind magazine.

David’s rise to power beckons Tamar’s mother to leave her temple, her priestess tradition and her first marriage to join the king’s growing harem. Traveling with her, young Tamar gains the ancient gift of hearing the whispers of sacred serpents, the will of the Goddess. The conflict between her Goddess and David’s single God grows into a battle for the holy land, for succession, for souls, for love. For life itself.
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Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical, Biblical Fiction, Biblical, Fiction

364 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 1994

Reviews

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tamar is very well written; a sweeping story about the clash between Goddess-centered religion and the patriarchal religions gaining power many centuries ago. And the gray areas in between the two opposing sides. This story gets a few lines in the Bible, which I'm curious to investigate, and Chamberlin uses her imagination and some literary license to create a very detailed story of a young woman coming into her own power as a woman and as a politically important figure. This book was nostalgically satisfying to me as it reminded me strongly of books I read when I was 12-14, like Mists of Avalon.

[Gail Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting side to the story of Tamar from the story of David in the Bible; giving her a love story with Amnon, as well as a hate story with her step-brother Absolum.
It goes in-depth into the religions of the area and times as opposed to Judaism. It gives a different understanding to how Tamar's background affected her choices and way of life.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

An alternative view of the King David story and very fictional. But interesting.

[Susan McDuffie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ann Chamberlin is one of my favorite authors. I intended to be reading her new book, THE WOMAN AT THE WELL, but wound up picking up TAMAR (also published as SNAKESLEEPER) and got swept up in this moving story again. This is a riveting book from the very first paragraph, a wonderful retelling of a story given a few sentences in the Old Testament. It even had me digging out the ild Bible my grandparents gave me at age seven to see what that version of the story was. Tamar's version of the story, vividly re-imagined here, is quite different from the Biblical version, and makes me wish that her religion was a little more present in today's abused world. I highly recommend this book!

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting how she interpreted and transformed the information about Tamar and made it into a story. Amnon became a better person and Absalom became more wicked. Idolatry and earth goddess were very much a part of the story. I had read this before in the 90's but this was a chance to compare closer the the other bibical characters in other writer's stories.