The Deeper Song
Copyright
Arthur Tofte Juvenile Fiction Book Award, conferred annually by the
Council of Wisconsin Writers.
Selected for the 1998 Books for the Teen Age by the Office of Young
Adult Services of the New York Public Library
Some Biblical scholars have put forth the idea that a woman
may have written the oldest parts of the first five books of the Bible,
the "J" manuscript. The Deeper Song is about that woman and how
she came to do the writing. It takes place in the time of Solomon and
concerns the way the religion of the Hebrews twined itself about the earlier
beliefs of the Goddess-worshipping people of Canaan--how the two rested
together and ground against each other like continental plates, causing
constant low level disturbances and periodic volcanic eruptions. It
is the story of Judith, an intelligent young girl struggling for recognition
by her equally intelligent patriarchal father who is a priest of the Hebrew
religion. When Samuel, her lover and mentor, asks her to help save her
people from internal strife by writing down the ancient stories of their
race she's faced with a choice. Should she defy her father and join the
Goddess religion, where she'll be given respect and understanding, but
will lose her family, and maybe even her life? Or should she obey her father
and stay safely within the bounds of the Hebrew religion, unappreciated
and even despised by the leaders of the people.
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Copyright
From Deeper Song by Patricia Curtis Pfitsch.
Illustration © 1996 by Michelle Barnes.
Courtesy Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, an imprint
of Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing Division.