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Scent and Stone: biblical fiction with a strong female lead about hope, faith and first loves
For fans of Tessa Afshar and Francine Rivers comes biblical fiction about hope, faith and first love in Ancient Jerusalem.
Fragrance in her hands, dust on her apron, the weight of Jerusalem on her shoulders.
In the aftermath of the Babylonian Siege, seventeen-year-old Keziah bat Alter is the unmarried daughter of a district ruler, struggling to ‘behave’ as a woman in the rubble of Jerusalem's fallen streets.
With her mother blind and her twin sister desperate to marry, Keziah finds solace in the practice of perfumery and in the presence of her close friend, Ben.
But solace is a luxury she can't afford for long.
When the governor Nehemiah calls the city to rebuild its walls, her father has no sons to respond, and Keziah knows that upholding their family’s honour rests firmly on her shoulders.
Once the districts are assigned their sections, Keziah is left with an impossible let her family's name be dragged through the dirt, or defy everything a woman is permitted to do and risk rebuilding it herself.
Set among the limestone hills and dusty streets of fifth-century Jerusalem, where stars shine brightly and God rewards the courageous, Scent and Stone by Ian M. Cartwright is a reimagined version of the events in Nehemiah, full of hope, first loves and the power of faith.
Fragrance in her hands, dust on her apron, the weight of Jerusalem on her shoulders.
In the aftermath of the Babylonian Siege, seventeen-year-old Keziah bat Alter is the unmarried daughter of a district ruler, struggling to ‘behave’ as a woman in the rubble of Jerusalem's fallen streets.
With her mother blind and her twin sister desperate to marry, Keziah finds solace in the practice of perfumery and in the presence of her close friend, Ben.
But solace is a luxury she can't afford for long.
When the governor Nehemiah calls the city to rebuild its walls, her father has no sons to respond, and Keziah knows that upholding their family’s honour rests firmly on her shoulders.
Once the districts are assigned their sections, Keziah is left with an impossible let her family's name be dragged through the dirt, or defy everything a woman is permitted to do and risk rebuilding it herself.
Set among the limestone hills and dusty streets of fifth-century Jerusalem, where stars shine brightly and God rewards the courageous, Scent and Stone by Ian M. Cartwright is a reimagined version of the events in Nehemiah, full of hope, first loves and the power of faith.
264 pages, Paperback
Published October 14, 2026
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