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After Abel and Other Stories
Finalist, 2015 National Jewish Book Award
Honorable Mention, Sophie Brody Medal, American Library Association
One of the Jewish Book Council's "15 fiction books that shaped Jewish literature in 2015"
“Lemberger imbues her characters with a consciousness that, although taking place in ancient times, seems contemporary, because she brings such empathy to her characters… It is this act of empathy that shines through…. an alternative dialogue that reminds us that it is the stories that we tell that are civilization’s true heritage.” ― FORBES
Eve considers motherhood.
Miriam tends Moses.
Lot's wife looks back.
Vividly reimagined with startling contemporary clarity, Michal Lemberger's debut collection of short stories gives voice to silent, oft-marginalized biblical their ambitions, their love for their children, their values, their tremendous struggles and challenges. Informed by Lemberger's deep knowledge of the Bible, each of these nine stories recasts a biblical saga from the perspective of a pivotal woman.
Honorable Mention, Sophie Brody Medal, American Library Association
One of the Jewish Book Council's "15 fiction books that shaped Jewish literature in 2015"
“Lemberger imbues her characters with a consciousness that, although taking place in ancient times, seems contemporary, because she brings such empathy to her characters… It is this act of empathy that shines through…. an alternative dialogue that reminds us that it is the stories that we tell that are civilization’s true heritage.” ― FORBES
Eve considers motherhood.
Miriam tends Moses.
Lot's wife looks back.
Vividly reimagined with startling contemporary clarity, Michal Lemberger's debut collection of short stories gives voice to silent, oft-marginalized biblical their ambitions, their love for their children, their values, their tremendous struggles and challenges. Informed by Lemberger's deep knowledge of the Bible, each of these nine stories recasts a biblical saga from the perspective of a pivotal woman.
288 pages, Paperback
First published March 16, 2015
63 people are currently reading
342 people want to read
About the author
Michal Lemberger
1 book18 followersMichal Lemberger's nonfiction and journalism have appeared in Slate, Salon, Tablet, and other publications, and her poetry has been published in a number of print and online journals. A story from After Abel, her first collection of fiction, was featured in Lilith Magazine. Lemberger holds an MA and PhD in English from UCLA and a BA in English and religion from Barnard College. She has taught the Hebrew Bible as Literature at UCLA and the American Jewish University. She was born and raised in New York and now lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two daughters.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
June 19, 2015
This book was right up my alley: retelling of Old Testament Stories from the perspective of the women, such as Lot's wife and King David's wife Michel. The author is a scholar in both religion and literature, so she didn't just go off on a tangent and rewrite the Bible to suit herself or to suit 21st-century feminist sensibilities. She wrote from the perspectives of women, but true Ancient-World women. The stories brought these ancient stories to life for me, and made them feel more personal and identifiable. My favorites were the two that I mentioned: Lot's Wife and Saul's Daughter.
February 7, 2023
Absolutely brilliant and absolutely necessary. Michal Lemberger’s short stories examine the emotional context and closer, more personal narratives of women throughout the Old Testament. These range from well-known figures like Eve or Miriam as well as more obscure characters like Zeresh, the wife of Haman. Sometimes these stories take place in the oft-tread narratives laid out in the Bible. The retelling here of Michal—Saul’s daughter and David’s first wife—is my favorite of these. It’s a devastating and tragic examination of a woman made a pawn in the politics of the men who should value her most and the lowly soldier who loves her…until political machinations take him away from her, too. This story is found almost best for beat in the pages of your Bible, but rarely do we ever stop to acknowledge this story, never mind the tragedy inherent in its events—and that’s part of the value of this book. Other short stories in this collection subvert their ancient narratives in unique and intelligent ways. Lemberger’s retelling of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah from the point of view of Lot’s wife is the most ambitious of these, though I won’t spoil any of the powerful details. Still, even the most loyally told tales here find new insights into the usually ignored lives and emotions of these women. Eve mourns the loss of not one but two sons, and ponders what it means to be the “mother of all living.” Miriam marvels at the beauty of Pharaoh’s daughter, perhaps in an untold queer manner.
While some stories shine brighter than others, there are no weak spots in this collection, with its varied protagonists—slaves and princesses, mothers and daughters, wives and concubines. Lemberger does not limit the biblical woman’s experience to a single personality or idealized sensibility. These characters are smart, queer(?), simple, conniving, petty, mournful, powerful, murderous, and altogether human in a way they are rarely allowed to be in our readings, tellings, and retellings of these stories.
If I have a gripe, it’s that the shortest of the stories are piled at the front, setting an initial fast pace, which made the longer narratives toward the back of the collection seem to drag until I readjusted my expectations (but to be clear, Saul’s Daughter, the longest of the stories, is one of my favorites). It’s certainly not enough to diminish the grandness of Lemberger’s accomplishment here. I want everyone I know to read this book.
While some stories shine brighter than others, there are no weak spots in this collection, with its varied protagonists—slaves and princesses, mothers and daughters, wives and concubines. Lemberger does not limit the biblical woman’s experience to a single personality or idealized sensibility. These characters are smart, queer(?), simple, conniving, petty, mournful, powerful, murderous, and altogether human in a way they are rarely allowed to be in our readings, tellings, and retellings of these stories.
If I have a gripe, it’s that the shortest of the stories are piled at the front, setting an initial fast pace, which made the longer narratives toward the back of the collection seem to drag until I readjusted my expectations (but to be clear, Saul’s Daughter, the longest of the stories, is one of my favorites). It’s certainly not enough to diminish the grandness of Lemberger’s accomplishment here. I want everyone I know to read this book.
December 13, 2015
I've been waiting awhile to get to these short stories; when I first heard about them, my interest in biblical retellings was reignited. I kind of/sort of attempted this for one NaNoWriMo, where without much in the way of scholarly merit, I tried to imagine the lives of the matriarchs. Lemberger, with all of her knowledge and empathy, accomplished what I might have dreamed of had I taken this task more seriously. I was at least vaguely familiar with almost all of the stories presented here, but as promised, she really burst those worlds open.
Even disregarding the characters for a moment, her descriptions of the landscapes, from lush Persia to the arid desert, made the worlds seem real even in the most magical realist of stories. We start with Eve, who, as the main character of an origin-of-life story, is the only one who understands, through her narrative, that she is recounting things for all time. Or, at least she would be if her voice counted as much as Adam's and those of her sons. Cities rise and fall from there; warfare, conquest and cruelty are often a backdrop here, as they are in the Hebrew Bible. We see how ambition turns Yael's people, who are surprisingly peaceable at first, into warmongers.
Yael's story was similar to Lot's wife's, named Puha here, in that they both make murderous choices in service of an arguably higher goal, but then they have to live with the unwanted consequences of that. These dilemmas perhaps speak the most to me from a modern perspective. The women narrating these tales had slightly differing desires--Yael longed for the peace and family of the old days, Puha wanted to save her daughters, Zaresh was mired in a world of political intrigue as a way to advance her family (and I commend Lemberger for telling a story about THAT man's wife while never mentioning his name; surely intentional. :p).
Sometimes the worlds and other characters around these women seemed a little one dimensional; we were there to witness how the protagonists wove through all of that. Marriage and child-rearing, servitude to men and judgment based solely on looks was something none of these women could escape. Penina, perhaps, had it the worst, because she found no love from her husband or sister wife, and her children were ultimately destined to leave her. Ergo, in a biblical context, she was destined to a life of loneliness, yet she did very little to try and change her fate. Ultimately, she accepted the status quo. Unlike Hagar, who chose to leave with Ishmael; this surprised me at first, because I believe canonically Sarah drives her out. But it was interesting to give Hagar this agency, and then other ultimate realizations about her life.
Then we have the stories about Michel and Achsah. I've always read Michel transcribed as Michal, but maybe Lemberger didn't want to share her name so intimately. :p. Far be it for me to question a biblical scholar about these spellings anyway. These two characters, besides Deborah who wasn't central and who dealt as a warrior, struck me as the most aggressive. I admit, I didn't know/remember the story of Michel's second marriage, and this story was a little more awkward for me. We divvy back and forth between her husband, Palti, and the collective first person of his hometown. Michel is more distant; we get to know her along with Palti, and Palti himself is easily the most empathetic of the men in this story. Certainly the most respectful husband, who sees his wife as a real person and not just a prize. Their love felt almost modern. Meanwhile, I think I have to read Geraldine Brooks's "The Secret Chord" now, to see beyond the layers of David's monstrous personality, hopefully. Perhaps he's a good cautionary tale for unbridled tribalism and nationalism, but at least he was a poet and musician, dammit. :p. Anywho, as for Achsah, I didn't know her story at all. But what a note for Lemberger to end on; this women riding back to her father and demanding her due. I love how she was considered "wise" and always let her opinion be known; uplifting!
Of course, I can't end this review without mentioning Miriam, ostensibly my mother's namesake. In a broader world made up of conquerors and the enslaved, she addresses us from ancient pre-Judaism's darkest time--and ergo likely most sympathetic from a modern perspective. Ironically, out of all the characters, Miriam, written as child, was the most idealistic, though perhaps the least interesting on her own. In this story, much like in the canon, she mostly exists to usher in her brother's entrance. Eh.
Thanks to the #readukkah campaign for Chanukah for giving me the push to finally pick up this book!
Even disregarding the characters for a moment, her descriptions of the landscapes, from lush Persia to the arid desert, made the worlds seem real even in the most magical realist of stories. We start with Eve, who, as the main character of an origin-of-life story, is the only one who understands, through her narrative, that she is recounting things for all time. Or, at least she would be if her voice counted as much as Adam's and those of her sons. Cities rise and fall from there; warfare, conquest and cruelty are often a backdrop here, as they are in the Hebrew Bible. We see how ambition turns Yael's people, who are surprisingly peaceable at first, into warmongers.
Yael's story was similar to Lot's wife's, named Puha here, in that they both make murderous choices in service of an arguably higher goal, but then they have to live with the unwanted consequences of that. These dilemmas perhaps speak the most to me from a modern perspective. The women narrating these tales had slightly differing desires--Yael longed for the peace and family of the old days, Puha wanted to save her daughters, Zaresh was mired in a world of political intrigue as a way to advance her family (and I commend Lemberger for telling a story about THAT man's wife while never mentioning his name; surely intentional. :p).
Sometimes the worlds and other characters around these women seemed a little one dimensional; we were there to witness how the protagonists wove through all of that. Marriage and child-rearing, servitude to men and judgment based solely on looks was something none of these women could escape. Penina, perhaps, had it the worst, because she found no love from her husband or sister wife, and her children were ultimately destined to leave her. Ergo, in a biblical context, she was destined to a life of loneliness, yet she did very little to try and change her fate. Ultimately, she accepted the status quo. Unlike Hagar, who chose to leave with Ishmael; this surprised me at first, because I believe canonically Sarah drives her out. But it was interesting to give Hagar this agency, and then other ultimate realizations about her life.
Then we have the stories about Michel and Achsah. I've always read Michel transcribed as Michal, but maybe Lemberger didn't want to share her name so intimately. :p. Far be it for me to question a biblical scholar about these spellings anyway. These two characters, besides Deborah who wasn't central and who dealt as a warrior, struck me as the most aggressive. I admit, I didn't know/remember the story of Michel's second marriage, and this story was a little more awkward for me. We divvy back and forth between her husband, Palti, and the collective first person of his hometown. Michel is more distant; we get to know her along with Palti, and Palti himself is easily the most empathetic of the men in this story. Certainly the most respectful husband, who sees his wife as a real person and not just a prize. Their love felt almost modern. Meanwhile, I think I have to read Geraldine Brooks's "The Secret Chord" now, to see beyond the layers of David's monstrous personality, hopefully. Perhaps he's a good cautionary tale for unbridled tribalism and nationalism, but at least he was a poet and musician, dammit. :p. Anywho, as for Achsah, I didn't know her story at all. But what a note for Lemberger to end on; this women riding back to her father and demanding her due. I love how she was considered "wise" and always let her opinion be known; uplifting!
Of course, I can't end this review without mentioning Miriam, ostensibly my mother's namesake. In a broader world made up of conquerors and the enslaved, she addresses us from ancient pre-Judaism's darkest time--and ergo likely most sympathetic from a modern perspective. Ironically, out of all the characters, Miriam, written as child, was the most idealistic, though perhaps the least interesting on her own. In this story, much like in the canon, she mostly exists to usher in her brother's entrance. Eh.
Thanks to the #readukkah campaign for Chanukah for giving me the push to finally pick up this book!
August 7, 2015
Looking forward to discussing this collection of biblically inspired short stories with the "Lunch & Learn" ladies at Sukkat Shalom!
February 12, 2023
I do owe it to jack for putting me onto this book.
My favs were: Eve’s story, Miriam’s story and Michal’s, story.
Getting to have these women fully fleshed out while staying true to biblical stories was truly magical. Each one felt very well researched and nuanced. Love getting to know more about the few female women we have in canonical Bible history. Very very well written.
Already bought my own copy so I can give jack back his.
My favs were: Eve’s story, Miriam’s story and Michal’s, story.
Getting to have these women fully fleshed out while staying true to biblical stories was truly magical. Each one felt very well researched and nuanced. Love getting to know more about the few female women we have in canonical Bible history. Very very well written.
Already bought my own copy so I can give jack back his.
April 28, 2022
We were required to read the short story "City of Refuge" from this collection for a Bible class I took, and it was good enough that I thought it would be fun to read the entire collection. In this I was not mistaken.
June 6, 2022
Friends raved about this book and thought I would enjoy it, and they were right. I enjoyed the stories. I appreciated that they did not veer in weird and often salacious directions like some "modern Midrash" books do. I loved reading about some lesser known female heroines of the Bible, and I really liked Lemberger's essay about Ruth at the end of the book - that she didn't feel like she had to expound or delve into what was in Megillat Rut.
July 15, 2020
I was absolutely blown away by this book. It is an attempt to take Biblical women and give them their own story where they are the main character: the protagonist. It succeeds marvelously at this. Although they are each only given a short story, each of them made me empathize with the women in question, and want to see endings better than the ones I knew they'd have, because I read the Bible, too. Each woman has her own voice from Eve questioning her mothering skills to Michel asking her husband to come and take one last walk with her.
This is the book I've been waiting for since I left the Catholic church at age 10 because they wouldn't let a girl be an altar boy, let alone a priest.
This is the book I've been waiting for since I left the Catholic church at age 10 because they wouldn't let a girl be an altar boy, let alone a priest.
January 9, 2017
I loved this book. If you are interested in women in the bible, this is a must read. Surprising, smart, well crafted and researched. A great example of modern biblical storytelling.
June 9, 2015
A brilliant retelling of Biblical stories through a Jewish, feminist perspective.
June 29, 2023
After Abel and Other Stories by Michel Lemberger (Prospect Park Publishing, 2015) is a collection of short stories about women in the Old Testament that may often be overlooked. Lemberger attaches emotions, motive, and/or backstory to bring these women to life and help us consider just what these event may have been like.
Here are a few thoughts about the nine stories.
“After Abel”. How did Eve feel when she learned her son died? My favorite line is that being the mother of all living also means that she is mother of all the dead too.
“Lot’s Wife”. Lot’s wife flees to protect her daughters, lighting the city on fire behind her. I didn’t quite understand this story, and it didn’t seem to follow my understanding of Sodom and Gomorrah.
“Drawn from the Water”. Moses’ sister follows the basket her mother made. I loved how this story gave the young girl’s perspective.
“The Watery Season”. Hagar’s story feels a little bit confused. She is portrayed as simple minded, so the characterization and narration felt realistic in that regard. I did not particularly like the Abraham and Sarah here depicted. They were pretty cruel!
“Zeresh, His Wife”. This tells the story of the wife of Haman, the servant of the King of Persia who plotted against the Jews, only to find out that the wife of the king, Esther, was a Jew. This was a heartbreaking story, showing how women had very little influence over their own lives.
“City of Refuge”. In this story, Yaol crushes the head of Sisera with a hammer while he sleeps, thus stopping the war between Sisera’s people and Israel. It is a fascinating look at what such an action would mean for a woman as contrasted with the tradition of Israel and her “heroic status” as depicted in the scriptures.
“Shiloh”. Telling the story of Elkanah’s second wife, Peninniah, gives us a contrast between this dutiful second wife’s life with that of the beloved first wife, Hannah. Peninniah was a hard worker who also bore children, and of course, Hannah eventually does too (the future prophet Samuel). But no matter how much she tries, she never feels the love that Elkanah pours onto Hannah. This gives such a realistic perspective to how these slighted women must have felt.
“Saul’s Daughter”. I need to read more about the story of Michel, the daughter of Saul, to fully understand this story. The bottom line is that Saul banishes his daughter Michel (who is married to David). She is sent to small town and remarried to a good but quiet man. Soon, however, David overthrows Saul, and he seeks out Michel to claim her. This story is told from the perspective of this second husband and I loved the depiction of a simple loving relationship between them. Did Michel even want to go back to being a queen? To David, who had abandoned her?
“And All the Land Between Them”. In this story, the mighty Caleb promises his daughter Achsah in marriage to the man who can defeat the Canaanites in the town of Debir. When someone finally succeeds, his wily daughter gets Caleb to give her Debir and the rest of the land as a dowry, a fine comeuppance since Caleb had married her off without her permission. I liked how Achsah stood up for herself in this story.
After finishing the stories in After Abel, I wanted more. I’ll certainly consider the seldom mentioned women in the future as I read scripture.
On the blog: https://reviews.rebeccareid.com/after...
Here are a few thoughts about the nine stories.
“After Abel”. How did Eve feel when she learned her son died? My favorite line is that being the mother of all living also means that she is mother of all the dead too.
“Lot’s Wife”. Lot’s wife flees to protect her daughters, lighting the city on fire behind her. I didn’t quite understand this story, and it didn’t seem to follow my understanding of Sodom and Gomorrah.
“Drawn from the Water”. Moses’ sister follows the basket her mother made. I loved how this story gave the young girl’s perspective.
“The Watery Season”. Hagar’s story feels a little bit confused. She is portrayed as simple minded, so the characterization and narration felt realistic in that regard. I did not particularly like the Abraham and Sarah here depicted. They were pretty cruel!
“Zeresh, His Wife”. This tells the story of the wife of Haman, the servant of the King of Persia who plotted against the Jews, only to find out that the wife of the king, Esther, was a Jew. This was a heartbreaking story, showing how women had very little influence over their own lives.
“City of Refuge”. In this story, Yaol crushes the head of Sisera with a hammer while he sleeps, thus stopping the war between Sisera’s people and Israel. It is a fascinating look at what such an action would mean for a woman as contrasted with the tradition of Israel and her “heroic status” as depicted in the scriptures.
“Shiloh”. Telling the story of Elkanah’s second wife, Peninniah, gives us a contrast between this dutiful second wife’s life with that of the beloved first wife, Hannah. Peninniah was a hard worker who also bore children, and of course, Hannah eventually does too (the future prophet Samuel). But no matter how much she tries, she never feels the love that Elkanah pours onto Hannah. This gives such a realistic perspective to how these slighted women must have felt.
“Saul’s Daughter”. I need to read more about the story of Michel, the daughter of Saul, to fully understand this story. The bottom line is that Saul banishes his daughter Michel (who is married to David). She is sent to small town and remarried to a good but quiet man. Soon, however, David overthrows Saul, and he seeks out Michel to claim her. This story is told from the perspective of this second husband and I loved the depiction of a simple loving relationship between them. Did Michel even want to go back to being a queen? To David, who had abandoned her?
“And All the Land Between Them”. In this story, the mighty Caleb promises his daughter Achsah in marriage to the man who can defeat the Canaanites in the town of Debir. When someone finally succeeds, his wily daughter gets Caleb to give her Debir and the rest of the land as a dowry, a fine comeuppance since Caleb had married her off without her permission. I liked how Achsah stood up for herself in this story.
After finishing the stories in After Abel, I wanted more. I’ll certainly consider the seldom mentioned women in the future as I read scripture.
On the blog: https://reviews.rebeccareid.com/after...
December 30, 2020
Michal Lemberger's After Abel and Other Stories is a collection of short stories from the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. The defining feature of this collection is the perspective/primacy of women. Almost all of the short stories are from a woman's perspective. Each story is based on a story from the Bible and Lemberger does not change the ending of each story. She does, however, fill in what the Bible leaves out. For example, the Bible only mentions her as Lot's Wife, but Lemberger fleshes her out as an individual with feelings, a name, and a background.
The short stories included After Abel (Eve from Genesis), Lot's Wife (Genesis), Drawn from the Water (Miriam from Exodus), The Watery Season (Hagar from Genesis), Zeresh, His Wife (Esther), City of Refuge (Yael from Judges), Shiloh (Penina from 1 Samuel), Saul's Daughter (Michel from 2 Samuel), and And All the Land Between Them (Achsah from Judges).
Lemberger's writing is flowing and clear and her depictions of these women are emotionally moving. While I enjoyed all of them, several stories stood out to me. These included After Abel, Lot's Wife, Drawn from the Water, Zeresh, His Wife, Shiloh, and Saul's Daughter. I was already familiar with the first three (Eve, Lot's Wife, and Miriam), but I was unfamiliar with the latter three (Zeresh, Penina, and Michel). I liked the different perspective for the first three since I already knew them and their stories in the Bible. Lemberger allowed them to feel real for the first time with their fears, regrets, and grief. I did not know the stories of the latter three and had to pull out the Bible to check. They are barely mentioned in the Bible - maybe two lines, if that. Lemberger, however, fleshes out their tragedies, grief, dreams, personalties, and their culture. She gives them life.
I would easily recommend this collection of short stories to anyone interested in women's stories, Bible stories, and or popular stories from a different perspective.
The short stories included After Abel (Eve from Genesis), Lot's Wife (Genesis), Drawn from the Water (Miriam from Exodus), The Watery Season (Hagar from Genesis), Zeresh, His Wife (Esther), City of Refuge (Yael from Judges), Shiloh (Penina from 1 Samuel), Saul's Daughter (Michel from 2 Samuel), and And All the Land Between Them (Achsah from Judges).
Lemberger's writing is flowing and clear and her depictions of these women are emotionally moving. While I enjoyed all of them, several stories stood out to me. These included After Abel, Lot's Wife, Drawn from the Water, Zeresh, His Wife, Shiloh, and Saul's Daughter. I was already familiar with the first three (Eve, Lot's Wife, and Miriam), but I was unfamiliar with the latter three (Zeresh, Penina, and Michel). I liked the different perspective for the first three since I already knew them and their stories in the Bible. Lemberger allowed them to feel real for the first time with their fears, regrets, and grief. I did not know the stories of the latter three and had to pull out the Bible to check. They are barely mentioned in the Bible - maybe two lines, if that. Lemberger, however, fleshes out their tragedies, grief, dreams, personalties, and their culture. She gives them life.
I would easily recommend this collection of short stories to anyone interested in women's stories, Bible stories, and or popular stories from a different perspective.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 29, 2019
'After Abel' is an ambitious but accomplished collection of short stories that attempts to define the female experience within the confined margins of the Old Testament. It is not a re-imagining or an attempted modernisation (if admittedly, the very attention given to these biblical women is somewhat modern). Instead the author seeks spaces where females exist and allows these women to move freely without censorship. The author manages to envision these women whom attempt to navigate the complex socio-political landscape ruled and fought over by men. Amongst the highlights are the stories: Hagar’s sacrifice and suffering in 'The Watery Season'; Zeresh’s failed gambit in 'Zeresh, his Wife' and Michel’s devotion in 'Saul’s Daughter'. These stories while powerful on their own, combine to form a deep perspective that illuminate each of the protagonists actions through context and empathy.
Ultimately, this is a very readable and enjoyable collection of stories that can be approached by anyone, regardless of Biblical knowledge or familiarity. The author writes confidently and has produced a wonderful humanising collection that enriches the old stories from a female perspective. My only complaint is how brief the collection is. There is certainly many more voices to hear.
Ultimately, this is a very readable and enjoyable collection of stories that can be approached by anyone, regardless of Biblical knowledge or familiarity. The author writes confidently and has produced a wonderful humanising collection that enriches the old stories from a female perspective. My only complaint is how brief the collection is. There is certainly many more voices to hear.
June 9, 2019
This was a really interesting book. I cannot say that I enjoyed reading it, because the stories portrayed and the way the characters were treated was just brutal. There was little hope to be found here. That is true for SOME of the stories in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament. (All of the stories in here are taken from the Old Testament.) But you feel beat up time and time again.
These are fictionalized/imagined accounts of what women in some of the Bible stories would have felt and thought as their stories unfolded. As the writer points out in her "afterword," MOST of the women in the Bible did NOT have great experiences and lived lives of pain and torment. That is all well captured, here.
It was a different way to get into the context of the Bible stories and there is certainly some value in that. But I am not sure I would enthusiastically endorse this. I really wrestled between giving this 3 and 4 stars. Since it is the Bible we are talking about, the main message should have included something about hope. Here, the main message was just pain and how much of it the women in these stories had to endure.
These are fictionalized/imagined accounts of what women in some of the Bible stories would have felt and thought as their stories unfolded. As the writer points out in her "afterword," MOST of the women in the Bible did NOT have great experiences and lived lives of pain and torment. That is all well captured, here.
It was a different way to get into the context of the Bible stories and there is certainly some value in that. But I am not sure I would enthusiastically endorse this. I really wrestled between giving this 3 and 4 stars. Since it is the Bible we are talking about, the main message should have included something about hope. Here, the main message was just pain and how much of it the women in these stories had to endure.
December 1, 2024
Such a wonderful and beautifully written collection of stories! Rarely do we see a discussion of biblical tales from the female perspective, and in After Abel, we get nine different stories centered around the women of the Bible, all written with the utmost care and empathy. Each story in this collection is beautifully written from beginning to end, and I loved stepping into these women's lives and times, so different from our own as they were. Each story was distinct and unique but still cohesive. My favourite stories were Drawn from the Water (Miriam's Story), Saul's Daughter (Michel's Story), and Zeresh, His Wife (Zeresh's Story). I'll be thinking about this collection of stories for quite some time.
"Now, mother and mourner both, I finally understand. To be mother of the living is also to be mother to all the dead."
"Now, mother and mourner both, I finally understand. To be mother of the living is also to be mother to all the dead."
September 21, 2018
This book is a brutal and beautiful read. It probably has much to do with being an older woman, where I can look back on life as a woman and feel so strongly for the women in these stories. Each story is uniquely luminous, and , but of all of them, it was "Saul's Daughter" that finally ended me. Women have always had to make hard choices, based on the roles that have been chosen for them, but sometimes we are very good at denial. This is, after all, the way things have always been, and it isn't about us personally. Saul's daughter knew that it was both - that it was personal, and the way it had always been.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
January 26, 2018
I think, without a doubt, if I knew the original bible stories that "After Abel" retells I would give this book five stars. But I'm only familiar with the first story of Adam and Eve. That said, I still really enjoyed this book. The concept. The execution. The style. The tone. The casualty each narrator has towards the men in her lives is inspiring and entertaining. Of course, I imagine life for women back then was far more brutal than even these stories reveal, I appreciated, still, the way each woman questions the men around them. Including "God."
September 1, 2017
I loved the stories. The woman's point of view was so interesting, and the imagination of a story within a "known" story was great. I also liked the last chapter about how this all came about, and the discussion of the Book of Ruth. Read this for book club, and am excited about meeting the suthor at our club meeting.
January 19, 2021
Wonderful Alternate View of Old Testament Stories
I strongly recommend this book because it take well known stories and re-imagines what the other people in the story were thinking and doing. That gave me a new appreciation for the original story.
I strongly recommend this book because it take well known stories and re-imagines what the other people in the story were thinking and doing. That gave me a new appreciation for the original story.
March 14, 2022
I absolutely adored this book. Each story is written beautifully, like being let into each woman's secret world, no matter where in the bible they stood. Michal purposely selects the neglected and makes them shine. I personally loved the story on Hagar and Michel, got a few tears from me!
March 29, 2022
Very well-done collection of short stories from the point of view of women in the bible. This is modern midrash at it's finest. A pleasure to read and contemplate the stories of these women, whom, I'll admit, I'd never given much thought to previously. Highly recommend this collection!
October 13, 2022
DNF. I genuinely struggled to bring myself to finish. I read four of the stories. The first one told from Eve's point of view was intriguing, but the following stories diverged more and more from their original narrative which bothered me. 2.5/5
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July 18, 2019This book was suggested for our book club. Powerful, timeless stories of women of courage. I highly recommend this book.
September 2, 2019
A great read. The voices of all the characters are so clear and well-rendered.
September 14, 2019
I enjoyed the female view of the bible stories. Very interesting
March 12, 2020
Women stories of the Bible!
Another way to look at the Biblical stories. A great selection. I am sorry that there were no more. Beautifully written. Sensitive and amazingly real.
Another way to look at the Biblical stories. A great selection. I am sorry that there were no more. Beautifully written. Sensitive and amazingly real.
August 10, 2023
Rivals The Red Tent
April 29, 2025
I was told I would be offended but this did not happen. Enjoyed every story and the author’s afterword. I do advise reading the original text though.
May 5, 2025
didn't ring any cord with me. I think a women and not a man should write these stories about biblical women.
December 13, 2017
I am so glad that I am reading this for a book club. There is so much to discuss here, such rich content in such a slim volume. I am enjoying it immensely, and I cannot wait to unpack this with the wise ladies of my Book Club.
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