The Jewel and the Ember
Love Stories from the Ancient Middle East
Jennifer Heath’s fabulistic short story collection The Jewel and the Ember celebrates love as it’s found in ancient texts.
Inspired by Golden Age cinema, including Samson and Delilah, and by the idea of love itself, Heath retells archetypal love stories throughout. Here, the biblical Joseph and Potiphar’s wife are renamed; their story departs from his classic flight from temptation and instead transforms into a late-stage fruition of long-held wishes. Elsewhere, lovers are warriors who test their skills on the battlefield, even fighting against each other. An ill-fated couple is deemed mad, resulting in their villages separating them. Princesses in sumptuous pavilions evoke Scheherazade with their own storytelling.
The brief tales cover passion, courtliness, and sometimes furious loves. Whether lovers quarrel or quest through riddles and challenges, seek pleasure, encounter fairies and sages, or discover that their love is ephemeral, their stories evoke timeless reverence for women’s sensuous beauty. The stories further teem with Persian palatial splendors and rugged wildernesses; floral and other Middle Eastern decorative motifs enliven the ancient setting. A few stories include uses of witchcraft in the form of manipulative spells, and some lovers are motivated to murder; these moments reveal possessiveness and jealousy too.
Love is covered in startling breadth in The Jewel and the Ember, a shimmering anthology that gathers tales of devotion and treachery.
Reviewed by
Karen Rigby
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
