Zipporah, Wife of Moses: A Novel (Canaan Trilogy) [Paperback]

Marek Halter (Author), Howard Curtis (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Canaan Trilogy | Publication Date: April 25, 2006

From the internationally bestselling author of Sarah comes the riveting story of the remarkable woman who walked beside Moses.

Although she is a Cushite by birth—one of the people of the lands to the south—Zipporah grew up as the beloved daughter of Jethro, high priest and sage of the Midianites. But the color of Zipporah’s skin sets her apart, making her an outsider to the men of her adopted tribe, who do not want her as a wife. Then one day while drawing water from a well, she meets a handsome young stranger. Like her, he is an outsider. A Hebrew raised in the house of the Egyptian Pharaoh, Moses is a fugitive, forced to flee his homeland. Zipporah realizes that this man will be the husband and partner she never thought she would have.

Moses wants nothing more than a peaceful life with the Midianites, but Zipporah won’t let Moses forget his past—or turn away from his true destiny.

She refuses to marry him until he returns to Egypt to free his people. When God reveals himself to Moses in a burning bush, his words echo Zipporah’s, and Moses returns to Egypt with his passionate and generous wife by his side.

A woman ahead of her time, Zipporah leaps from the pages of this remarkable novel. Bold, independent, and a true survivor, she is a captivating heroine, and her world of deserts, temples, and ancient wonders is a fitting backdrop to an epic tale.


Look for the Reader’s Group Guide at the back of this book.

Also available as an ebook

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his enjoyable but uneven second installment in the Canaan trilogy (Sarah), Halter takes his cue from the biblical story of Moses to imagine the life of Moses's little-known wife. In Midian, the pride of High Priest Jethro is his lovely and wise adopted daughter, Zipporah, a Cushite, yet he can't find a husband for her because she is black. Zipporah dreams about an Egyptian prince who waits for her at the bottom of the sea; Moses (literally the man of her dreams) arrives on the scene just as marauding shepherds attack. Zipporah's heart is stirred by the handsome vagabond, but so is the lust of her beautiful, cruel sister. When Moses chooses Zipporah, she realizes that before she can love him unreservedly, she must first make him face his destiny. Halter includes many rich cultural details and plenty of steamy sex, and he strikes a balance on miraculous occurrences, offering plausible ideas for some (the burning bush may have resulted from volcanic activity) while leaving others open to divine activity. Though it opens well, the book loses energy and culminates in a disappointing conclusion. Although this is not as engaging as The Red Tent, it should appeal to the same readership. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Halter continues with the second installment of his trilogy on biblical women, which began with Sarah in 2004. He again uses the frame of a biblical story--here, Moses' relationship with Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro--but this time the tale he tells is more overtly feminist. Zipporah is a Cushite, a black woman, and though she has found love and acceptance in her adoptive family, it's unlikely she will find a husband. Then she has a dream about an Egyptian prince, and before long, Moses appears--but a diffident Moses, very different from the biblical version. The focus here is clearly on Zipporah rather than Moses or even God. The great happenings of Moses' life, including the 10 plagues, mostly occur offstage. The strongest part of the book, not surprisingly, is the intense rendering of Zipporah. Halter builds her character not only by re-creating her most intimate thoughts but also by providing vivid details of her daily life in the desert. Less successful is the exploration of race relations, which seems forced. The last book in the triology will focus on Lilah, sister of Ezra. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; Rep Tra edition (April 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400052807
• ISBN-13: 978-1400052806
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #387,757 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Those Canaan Days Part 2, August 21, 2007

By 

Julie Merilatt "julzddm" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Zipporah, Wife of Moses: A Novel (Canaan Trilogy) (Paperback)

This book was much better than Sarah, the first book in the Canaan Trilogy. Zipporah was a much more sympathetic character than Sarah, and Moses more so than Abraham.

Zipporah was a proud woman who knew her destiny with a defiant certainty. She knew her role besides Moses, even before they had met. Their courtship is passionate (apparently Moses was a sexy thing) and Moses is accepted into Zipporah's family with great trust and love. Her father, Jethro, is a wise and influential figure throughout the novel. It is easy to see where Zipporah gets her wisdom and patience.

When Moses realizes his mission to free the Hebrews, Zipporah is his most trusted advisor, his strength and encouragement, though no one would accept her as anything other than a stranger because of her dark skin. She bears the weight of Moses' doubts, his troubled past, and his lack of confidence. Moses becomes the hero he is because of Zipporah's love and trust in Yahweh. However, the Hebrews will always be slaves in their hearts, and once they are free they cannot accept their lives or Zipporah's influence. It is a tragic conclusion to what should have been a glorious liberation.

This novel was much more emotional and well-written than Sarah, and I'm looking forward to the next in the series, in hopes that Halter's momentum continues.

To see my opinion of the entire trilogy, view my review of Lilah.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Story Has Potential, February 17, 2006

By 

Loves the View "Louise" (Hawaii) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Zipporah, Wife of Moses: A Novel (Hardcover)

Old Testament women certainly deserve biographies, but with information so scanty their stories will have to be imagined in fiction. Marek Halter makes a good try.

He speculates that as adoptees, Zipporah and Moses were attracted, or maybe fated. He also poses that Jethro, Zipporah's father belies the patrifocal stereotypes of desert patriarchs.

Halter illustrates Jethro's caring for his blood and adopted daughters by Jethro's allowing them to chose their husbands and a lack of any mention of paying another family to take them (i.e. dowery). If a suitor is a king, Jethro accepts a daughter's saying no.

It may be his love/respect for his daughters, and this lack of pressure on them to leave, that gives Zipporah the strength to resist marriage until Moses commits to returning to Egypt as she feels he must do. Once in Egypt, Zipporah maintains her dignity, perhaps because her adoptive father respected her in a way that Aron and Miriam (siblings to Moses)never could.

Once Moses leads the slaves to freedom, Halter gives practical examples of their ingrained slave mentality. They cannot manage the details of their lives and come to Moses for the petty grievances against each other. They can be an unruly mob... so unruly that they can trample the weak.

I don't know the accuracy of this account of the death of Zipporah and their sons. She and the sons do disappear from the texts. Halter gives a plausible story as to how it may have happened.

There is a lot of potential to this book. It is heavy in dialog, which I felt was stilted, but then, how else to frame the speech of such hallowed Biblical figures? The unrealistic dialog could be an artifact of what might be a second language for the author.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great!, December 30, 2005

By 

D. Coles "drc1520" (Matawan, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Zipporah, Wife of Moses: A Novel (Hardcover)

I applaud Marek Halter with his courage to delve into the unknown. I think that this book was well written and gave a well rounded view of the times. I am very happy that this book did not give into the "bibilical storytelling" that we have all become used to but instead gave a voice to passions, values, and predjudces that we still find ingrained in today's society. I will continue to read his books and am sorry for those who do not recognize this for the gem that it is.