ASENATH (ANNA PATRICIO)

Story Description  

In a humble fishing village on the shores of the Nile lives Asenath, a fisherman's daughter who has everything she could want. Until her perfect world is shattered.

When a warring jungle tribe ransacks the village and kidnaps her, separating her from her parents, she is forced to live as a slave. And she begins a journey that will culminate in the meeting of a handsome and kind steward named Joseph.

Like her, Joseph was taken away from his home, and it is in him that Asenath comes to find solace…and love. But just as they are beginning to form a bond, Joseph is betrayed by his master’s wife and thrown into prison.

Is Asenath doomed to a lifetime of losing everything and everyone she loves?

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My Review 

This was the most satisfying and beautiful story, I didn’t want it to end!  I know it’s early in the year but this could very well be my favourite novel of 2012! 

Anna Patricio has penned the most incredible story of the wife of Joseph from the Bible.  Asenath is portrayed so well that it’s glaringly obvious that the author has spent a great deal of time researching the book of Genesis and her studies in Egyptology have paid off.  We all are familiar with Joseph and his coat of many colours, but few, including myself, know little about his beloved wife, Asenath. 

Asenath was born Kiya and grew up until she was nine-years-old playing on the banks of the Nile River in Egypt with her best friend, Menah.  A monstrous group of barbarians kidnapped the two kids to exact revenge for a killing that took place years earlier.  The son was exacting revenge for the killing of his father.  The invaders killed Kiya’s mother and father and she was used as a slave until rescued by Egyptian soldiers and taken to the City of Heliopolis. 

Kiya is told her parents were murdered and is eventually adopted by the High Priest and Priestress of Autumn-Re and they changed her name to Asenath.  She was told that the name Asenath “…will give you power in days to come.”  Kiya was now to be known as “Lady Asenath, Chief Daughter of the Sun.” 

As Asenath grows she is learning to be a “Royal” and getting used to servants and citizens bowing and greeting her but she never loses her “roots”.  I loved the fact that she never thought of herself as above or better than anyone else and maintains her true self, often talking to the servants and always maintaining the spirit of her days as a peasant. 

When she finally meets Joseph, he was a servant in another household in a different city.  They correspond through letters for a year and it is through these letters that Asenath learns Joseph is from Canaan and learns who his ancestors are and the fact that they worship only one God.  Joseph explains his close relationship with his father and his gift of a coat of many colours.  Asenath doesn’t understand why Joseph had come to Egypt instead of staying in Canaan when he had such fond memories and close relationships with his family there. 

Asenath finally gets to see Joseph again but he is accused of raping another woman and is thrown in prison.  She returns home, packs her bags, and against her parent’s wishes, goes back to the city where Joseph is to try and get him out of prison. 

Will she succeed?  Will she and Joseph ever be together again?  There is so much more to this story but I’ve already said enough and you’ll just have to purchase a copy to find out what happens.  I know I couldn’t put this book down, I just had to keep reading, I was mesmerized. 

I would love to see this author write a sequel to “Asenath” so we can continue to follow her life until her death.  I know I’d be first in-line to purchase a copy. 

Thank you Ms. Patricio for the pdf copy in exchange for my honest review.  I’m so happy that you contacted me as this is one story I wouldn’t want to have missed.