pg 69 jeffrey hantovers jewel trader of

Pg. 69: Jeffrey Hantover's "The Jewel Trader of Pegu"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Jeffrey Hantover's The Jewel

Trader of Pegu.

About the book, from the publisher:

A melancholy young Jewish gem merchant, Abraham, born in Venice,

has lived his life behind the ghetto walls of that damp, oppressive

city. He has lost a wife and the son whose difficult birth killed

her. Now there is nothing left for him there.

In the autumn of 1598, Abraham chooses to seek his fortune far from

the painful familiarity of Europe and travels halfway across the

world to the lush and exotic Burmese kingdom of Pegu. An

overpoweringly strange m�lange of sodden heat, colorful customs,

and odd superstitions, it is a place and a people completely alien

to him. Yet in Pegu, the jewel trader is not hated or shunned for

his faith. Here Abraham is a man. Here he is free.

But there is a price for his newfound freedom. Local custom demands

that foreigners perform a duty Abraham finds both troubling and

barbaric. While it is a responsibility many men would embrace

eagerly, it mocks Abraham's moral beliefs and fills him with dread

and despair ... until Mya arrives to briefly share his bed.

Barely more than a girl, she awakens something within him far more

profound -- and more pleasurable -- than the guilt he anticipated.

And when tragedy destroys the future that was planned for her,

Abraham takes Mya in, offering her his home, his protection, and,

unexpectedly, his love. But great social and political upheaval

threatens to violently transform the entire Peguan empire -- and

the actions of the powerful will force fateful choices that could

have devastating consequences for Abraham and Mya and their dreams

for the future.

Among the early praise for The Jewel Trader of Pegu:

"Dreamy and lyrical, steeped in the customs and atmosphere of a world

long lost, The Jewel Trader of Pegu takes the reader on a deep

emotional journey through the meanings of what is precious."

-Liza Dalby, author of The Tale of Murasaki

"The Jewel Trader of Pegu is a thinking reader's tale with all the

trappings of an exotic historical romance."

-Debra Dean, author of The Madonnas of Leningrad

"They [readers] will be swept away by Hantover's lavish descriptions

of an exotic, lost Asian kingdom; the gentle love story; and the tale

of one man's thoughtful journey to his heart's home."

-Sarah Johnson, Booklist

"Making his fiction debut, Hantover intercuts Abraham's letters with

short chapters from Mya's point of view with delicacy and grace. He

evokes the lush setting and gives clear voice to Abraham's doubts,

fears and passions."

-Publishers Weekly

Read an excerpt from The Jewel Trader of Pegu, and learn more about