A Reluctant Queen (40 page)
“I am so sorry, my lord. I did not want to continue to deceive you about my identity, but I was afraid to tell you. I was afraid you would be so hurt, so angry that I had lied, that you would turn away from me.”
They looked at each other, their hands still clasped on her stomach. “I could never turn away from you,” he said. “I could not bear the loneliness if I did that.”
“I feel the same way,” she whispered.
He closed his eyes and rested his head against her once more. “Hold me, Esther,” he said.
As she wrapped her arms around him and buried her lips in his hair, she closed her own eyes and thought,
Thank You, Father in Heaven. Thank You for giving me back my husband
.
I
t is always a challenge when an author takes a familiar story, whether it be myth, legend, or well-known biblical material, and decides to turn it into a novel. Most of the time, in order to produce an effective novel, it is necessary to rearrange some of the original material. I have long thought that the Book of Esther would make a wonderful love story. The elements are all there: the exotic setting of the Persian Empire; the Cinderella story of this little Jewish girl becoming the queen of the Great King of Persia; the amazing conclusion where she intervenes with her husband to save her entire people from annihilation. What could be more romantic?
But novelists have rules that do not govern other kinds of writing. A novel must create believable, reasoning characters who drive the action. As E. M. Forster famously put it: “
The king died and then the queen died
is a story.
. . . The king died and then the queen died of grief
is a plot.” To turn the Book of Esther into a novel, I had to give the characters humanly understandable reasons for acting as they did. Haman had to have a reason for hating Mordecai so much; Mordecai had to have a reason for sending his niece to the King of Persia’s harem; Esther had to have reasons for doubting her uncle’s dream; Ahasuerus had to have reasons for picking such a socially unsuitable girl to be his queen. For all of the above reasons, I felt it necessary to tinker a bit with the Esther story as it is presented in the Bible.
Another thing a novelist must be cognizant of is pace. A plot needs to keep moving, so in some places you will find that I have telescoped time in order to achieve a more dramatic and suspenseful effect.
Then there is the issue of the historical background of the novel. Historically, there is no king called Ahasuerus. The king who followed Darius was his son by Atossa, Xerxes. The years of the beginning of Xerxes’ reign, which lasted from 486 BC–465 BC, is the time setting for Esther, when the vast Persian Empire stretched from India to Turkey. Xerxes took the throne four years after the Persian defeat at Marathon in Greece, and I used this historical background to give motivation to some of Ahasuerus’ actions. Ahasuerus, you will have noticed, is a far more admirable character in the novel than the king in the Bible. Since I was writing this story as a love story, clearly the hero had to have some good qualities that would make Esther fall in love with him.
Where the Bible story and the novel come together is in the underlying premise. God has a plan for the world, and He works His plan through the actions of humans. The big question is, will we allow God to work through us? God wants us to be His partners, but we have the free will to accept or refuse His challenge. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, all of God’s people must listen to His voice and open their hearts for Him to use us for His purposes.
I
am tremendously indebted to my wonderful agent, Natasha Kern. Her faith in this book was so strong that it empowered me to keep working on it. I must also give thanks to my editor at Thomas Nelson, Ami McConnell, whose suggestions helped shape the character of Esther. Finally, thanks are due to my wonderful husband, Joe, who has always been the wind beneath my wings.
1. The king’s banishment of Vashti is the catalyst for the contest that brings Esther to his attention. How does the shadow of Vashti hang over Esther for the remainder of the book?
2. Do you think Mordecai can really love his niece and at the same time ask her to do something that is so opposed to everything she believes in?
3. It takes a long time for Esther to accept the role that has been thrust on her. What are the steps she must take before she arrives at her decision to stand up for her people?
4. Esther finds herself caught between her love for her husband and her responsibility to her God. Can such a struggle happen in today’s secular world?
5. In the Bible, Haman stands for pure evil. His only motivation is his hatred of the Jews, which is never quite explained. It is a given. How does the novel try to expand Haman’s motivations to greater complexity? Do you think Haman’s actions are believable, given the context of the novel?
6. Does Haman in any way pre-figure Judas?
7. At the beginning of the Book of Esther, the Jews have become in danger of assimilating into the Persian culture and forgetting their special mission from God. Is that happening to Christians today?
8. For Jews the celebration of Purim reminds them that with the gift of survival comes responsibility. Wherever injustice and hatred exist in the world, Jews are called to speak up and lead the call for justice. Does the same call apply to Christians?
9. Does Haman’s plan to destroy the Jews remind you of the Holocaust? Why do you think the Jews have been the target of such hatred over the centuries?