Review of Drawing in the Dust

Drawing in the Dust
Zoe Klein
Pocket Books division of Simon and Schuster
360 pages

Drawing in the Dust is a commanding and illuminating read told by a phenomenal new voice with an obvious old soul.
Page Brookstrone has been searching her whole life, for the meaning of life, the meaning of her life. She has a terrible legacy she hopes she won’t fulfill but is afraid non-the-less to realize it’s truth. At a young age her father died after a battle with ALS so she now devotes her life to the dead, the long dead as an archeologist and as she searches in Israel for treasures hidden in it’s dust she discovers something amazing, something life altering, something controversial and something heralding in her field. Now the true question is, what will she do. Will she go along with the status quo, or will she ford a new stream and take a stand.
Zoe is an astonishing storyteller as she spellbinds you from the first page and keeps you there until the novel is finished. Her plot is an always interesting subject for me as I love ancient history and archeology and adore stories of powerful women. Her dialogue is prose like in it’s flow, exact enough for a textbook when she goes into her science speak and scholarly in her theology. She will paint pictures in your mind of her scenes that will leave you breathless in their graphic depictions. She gives us amazingly diverse characters that will leave you in awe, some you will grow to love and some you will learn to despise. Her champion Page is a multilevel character who is tenacious in her chosen field and yet is vulnerable and immature in her own person. As we watch her grow through the tale we gain more respect for her and begin to understand what makes her tick. Her male protagonist is a most unlikely hero and at your first meeting you’ll think him just another minor figure in the book so he I will let you figure out. She has also a co-heroine and hero in the novel, but I’ll let you discover them on your own as well. This is a love story, but not a romance and her portrayal will offend no one.
If you love historic fiction, literary fiction, women’s fiction or theological fiction then you won’t be sorry you chose this read, actually anyone who reads this will be pleased they did. I personally love stories depicting capable and even forceful women especially in historic settings where we were little more than livestock to men. This is a definite must read.