It is the fifth century C.E. Shifra and her husband, Benjamin, both hail from Alexandria, Egypt, but have spent the last 30 years in Milan, always wary of the pressure put on Jews like themselves to convert to the regnant faith of Christianity. They maintain their beliefs, but after Benjamin, a physician, is beaten to death one night out of a prejudicial contempt for his religion, Shifra is faced with a terrible choice: Bishop Marolus demands that she finally become a Christian or face a tax on her estate so steep it will leave her all but penniless. She defiantly stands her ground, but life for her in Milan becomes all but unbearable—Shifra is also physically assaulted for being Jewish—so she moves back to Alexandria to live with her younger brother, Akiva, a secretary to Orestes, the Roman governor of upper Egypt and an influential man. In this powerful moral drama, Shifra sadly discovers that Akiva’s success depends upon his own conversion to Christianity, and he strongly encourages her to follow suit. Meanwhile, Shifra’s servant, Dacia, struggles to maintain her religious identity as well—raised an Arian Christian, she is seen as a heretic by the Nicene Christians who make up the majority. The author meticulously portrays the depth of Shifra’s moral predicament—she could continue to worship as she pleases in private, if only she would renounce her faith publicly (“Sometimes dissembling is the price of survival”). However, such a disavowal seems to her like a betrayal of both her ancestors and Benjamin, who is considered by Bishop Marolus to be “forever lost, doomed to eternity in Hell.” Maddox rigorously reconstructs the historical setting and its political and cultural tensions. This is a gripping blend of astute historical commentary and literary drama.
