A Star out of Jacob

Martha Carver Harris spent her career as a United States Foreign Service Officer, working at U.S. Embassies in Europe, South Asia, the Middle East and West Africa. Currently retired, she resides in Northern Virginia. Her first novel, The Gospel According to ..., depicted the political sophistication, Hellenistic culture and moral corruption of the enemies surrounding Jesus of Nazareth.

Faye is an overweight Sunday school teacher of Persian extraction with a dog walking business and no self-esteem. Mysterious dreams play on her ancestral links to the Parthian Empire and an elite priestly class known as the magi. Faye is, in fact, a link to the ancient group of men who followed the Star to Bethlehem. But she ignores that and doggedly pursues modern-day progressive causes like animal rights and climate change. Quite by accident she meets Sebastian, an intelligent and irresistible Jew who, like Faye, has a serious side. Together they explore the scientific underpinnings of Intelligent Design, ancient astrology, apocalyptic theories, and the Big Bang. A romance develops. But a fatal disease leads Faye to abandon Sebastian and discover the full story of her Parthian forebears. Heavenly personages explain her mystic connection to a child who traveled with the Wise Men. Through them, she discovers the startling synchrony between movements of the cosmos and the Truth revealed in Bethlehem.