City of Refuge creates a living Bible experience

New novel “transports readers to an ancient and breathtakingly authentic world”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE      
New York, NY (Frumwire) Aug. 10, 2008 - In the time of the Bible, if a teenager hurled a spear in an empty forest, impaling and inadvertently killing a passerby, what price would the teen have to pay?      

Readers can find out the answer in City of Refuge (author: Valerie Farber; 390 pages, $17.95, ISBN 978-0-9816058-0-7). This novel takes an unconventional route in biblical fiction, relating an untold story set in a biblical society. City of Refuge beckons readers into a fascinating world; readers join townspeople in meting out justice to an ox after its wild rampage through town and accompany the unfortunate teen as he flees to a haven (city of refuge) after the accidental murder– as dictated by biblical law.

City of Refuge probes the feelings of the fugitive, his remorse, the yearning he feels for his home in anticipation of his long exile in a city of refuge, and his terror while fleeing from vigilantes, the relatives of his victim.

City of Refuge is rich in detail of ancient daily life and herbal lore. The novel’s characters grind flour for their daily bread, clean fleeces by soaking in vats of urine, weave wool on a warp-weighted loom, and work bellows to melt ore and extract metal. Village healers make salves and decoctions from plants’ leaves, stems, and bulbs.

Dr. Mike Simpson, author of The Lazarus Project, says: “City of Refuge transports readers to an ancient and breathtakingly authentic world. Farber’s novel is a compelling read, effortlessly drawing in the casual reader as well as the Bible student. Magnificent is not too strong a word to describe this wonderfully written volume that inspires and teaches as it amazes.”

The late Rabbi Jacob Rubenstein of Young Israel of Scarsdale, NY said “City of Refuge is a wondrous journey into the biblical past with historical depth, substance, and style. Not since Michener's The Source have I been so transported to another time and place and so engrossed in the drama of others. Farber has crafted a composition which is worthy of scholars but can be relished by all.”

For more information or to schedule an interview with Valerie Farber, please email [email protected]. Books can be ordered from www.cityofrefugenovel.com or Amazon. Review copies are available to the media on request.