Mitchell James Kaplan Libri

"One evening in 1924, Katharine "Kay" Swift -- a serious pianist who longs for recognition, and who is also the restless but loyal wife of wealthy banker James Warburg -- attends a concert. The piece: "Rhapsody in Blue." The composer: a brilliant young musical genius named George Gershwin. Kay is transfixed, helpless to resist the magnetic pull of George's talent, charm, and swagger. Their ten-year love affair, complicated by her conflicted loyalty to her husband and the twists and turns of her own musical career, ends only with George's death at the age of thirty-eight. Set in Jazz Age New York, [this work of fiction] explores the timeless bond between two brilliant, strong-willed artists." -- page [4] of cover

When her village in Albion is sacked by the Roman general Vespasian, young Aislin is left without home and family. Determined to exact revenge, she travels to Rome, a sprawling city of wealth, decadence, and power. A "barbarian" in a "civilized" world, Aislin struggles to comprehend Roman ways. From a precarious hand-to-mouth existence on the streets, she becomes the mistress of a wealthy senator, but their child Faolan is born with a disability that renders him unworthy of life in the eyes of his father and other Romans. Imprisoned for her efforts to topple the Roman regime, Aislin learns of an alternate philosophy from her cellmate, the Judean known today as the apostle St. Paul. As the capital burns in the Great Fire of 64 AD, he bequeaths to her a mission that will take her to Jerusalem. There, Yohanan, son of Zakkai, has been striving to preserve the tradition of Hillel against the Zealots who advocate for a war of independence. Responding to the Judeans' revolt, the Romans--again under the leadership of Vespasian--besiege Jerusalem, destroying the Second Temple and with it, the brand of Judean monotheism it represents. Yohanan takes on the mission of preserving what can be preserved, and of re-inventing what must be reinvented.