Some Biblical scholars have put forth the idea that a woman may have written the oldest parts of the first five books of the Bible, the "J" manuscript. The Deeper Song is about that woman and how she came to do the writing. It takes place in the time of Solomon and concerns the way the religion of the Hebrews twined itself about the earlier beliefs of the Goddess-worshipping people of Canaan--how the two rested together and ground against each other like continental plates, causing constant low level disturbances and periodic volcanic eruptions.
It is the story of Judith, an intelligent young girl struggling for recognition by her equally intelligent patriarchal father who is a priest of the Hebrew religion. When Samuel, her lover and mentor, asks her to help save her people from internal strife by writing down the ancient stories of their race she's faced with a choice. Should she defy her father and join the Goddess religion, where she'll be given respect and understanding, but will lose her family, and maybe even her life? Or should she obey her father and stay safely within the bounds of the Hebrew religion, unappreciated and even despised by the leaders of the people.
Illustration © 1996 by Michelle Barnes.
Awards
Council of Wisconsin Writers
Juvenile Fiction Award.
Selected for the 1998 Books for the Teen Age by the New York Public Library
