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Counted With the Stars (Out From Egypt)
by Connilyn Cossette - This book intrigued me from the first time I saw it. It's a novelized account of the Exodus, but from an unusual viewpoint - that of an Egyptian that chooses to go with the Hebrews in a desperate attempt to save her brother and mother. Also a little unusual among novels about this event is that the central characters in this one are not in a circle close to Moses, so they are often uncertain or taken by surprise by the plagues and other events.
Kiya's family was wealthy and prominent in the Egyptian city of Iunu, but when her father suffers a great financial setback, he sells Kiya as a slave to pay some of his debt, and in an effort to protect Kiya's mother and her disabled brother, Jumo. Kiya goes from a life of luxury and ease to being a lowly handmaid to a woman that seems to get enjoyment out of mistreating Kiya. Kiya finds one friend in the household, a Hebrew girl named Shira who is always kind and loving and begins telling Kiya about the God of her people. When the mysterious plagues start afflicting Egypt, Kiya's curiosity about Shira's God grows, but she has been brought up to believe in the many Egyptian gods and the divinity of Pharoah, so she thinks the idea of just one God that can't even be seen is strange and a bit ridiculous.
After enduring plagues and the abuse of her mistress, Kiya is willing to do whatever it takes to save her older brother when she receives a warning that the next plague to come will kill every firstborn. Kiya takes her chances and goes to Shira and her family, hoping that they will help her save Jumo from this curse. Then she goes with the Hebrews as they flee Egypt, but she is still afraid to completely trust Yahweh and hope that the Hebrew man she is falling in love with might accept her despite his bitterness towards all Egyptians.
Seeing the plagues and Exodus through the eyes of one of the foreigners, and even from the perspective of Hebrews who were far enough away from Goshen that news about Moses came through the grapevine was fascinating. Cossette has crafted a beautiful cast of characters and a sweeping story that shows what the Exodus may have been like for the Hebrews near the back of the procession out of Egypt and the foreigners who joined themselves to Yahweh. I'm already looking forward to Shadow of the Storm, which will come out later this year and take up Shira's story.
From the publisher:
Sold into slavery by her father and forsaken by the man she was supposed to marry, young Egyptian Kiya must serve a mistress who takes pleasure in her humiliation. When terrifying plagues strike Egypt, Kiya is in the middle of it all.
Choosing to flee with the Hebrews, Kiya finds herself reliant on a strange God and drawn to a man who despises her people. With everything she's ever known swept away and now facing the trials of the desert, will she turn back toward Egypt or surrender her life and her future to Yahweh?
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