by Marek Halter

Set in the magnificent culture of the Middle East more than four thousand years ago, Lilah is a rich and emotionally resonant story of faith, love, and courage.

Living in exile, Lilah is in love with Antinoes, a Persian warrior. They have known each other since they were children, and Antinoes dearly wants to make Lilah his wife. Yet Lilah does not feel she can marry without the blessing of her brother, Ezra. She and Ezra are close, and Lilah knows her brother well—he does not want his sister to have a husband outside their faith. Ezra is a scholar of the laws of Moses, and Lilah believes it is her brother’s destiny to lead the Jewish people back to the Promised Land. While Antinoes pressures her to accept his proposal, Lilah realizes that before she can consider her own happiness, it is her duty to help her brother accomplish the seemingly impossible task that is before him.

Putting herself in grave danger, and with the help of Antinoes, Lilah wins Ezra an audience with Artaxerxes II, the King of Kings, who grants permission to lead the exiles on their journey back to the Promised Land. After a hazardous trip across the desert, Lilah, Ezra, and the thousands who join them arrive in Jerusalem. But the hardship of rebuilding the Temple takes its toll, and the religious enthusiasm of some turns to extremism. Ezra, listening to the zealots, orders all non-Jewish wives and their children banished from Jerusalem. Lilah, whose love for Antinoes has never wavered, is horrified by this command. She knows she must now choose between her brother and her conscience, which tells her that the time has come to defy him.

Lilah is a timeless story of one woman’s stand against intolerance; it will linger in the reader’s mind long after the last page has been turned.



Yahweh, is it not your will that our bodies should grow beyond childhood? That we should become men and women, each with our own breath, our own strength, the joy of our own senses? Is it not your will that a man’s caress should delight a woman? Is it not your law that a sister should find other eyes to love than those of her brother, another voice to hear and admire other than that of her brother? Is it not your teaching that a woman should choose a husband according to her heart, as Sarah did, and Rachel and Zipporah, the wives of Abraham, Jacob, and Moses?

Whichever I am faithful to, the other’s pain will be just as strong.

Why must I cause pain when my brother and my lover have an equal place in my heart? —from Lilah


Also available as a Random House AudioBook and an eBook

Look for the excerpt from Sarah, the book that started it all, at the back of this book.

To download a Reading Group Guide for this book, or to find out more about historical fiction titles from the Crown Publishing Group, visit MaidensCrown.com.


From the Hardcover edition.