In this New-Testament-era novel, the reader comes face to face with Jesus through the eyes of a young girl coming of age at the height of his ministry. Ilana, daughter of an influential Pharisee in the village of Nain, pursues Jesus following his raising of a local widows son from death. Promised to Baruch, a merchant she does not love, and forbidden to see Asa, the young man who holds her heart, Ilana seeks a miracle from Jesus. With the help of newfound friends, she enters his camp in the hills near Bethsaida. If she has the boldness to ask, will he grant her request? How will her journey be viewed in Nain? And what difference will it make?
While respecting Scripture with painstaking care, Ilanas Love sketches the people of first-century Galilee and Judea with such reality that the read feels contemporary.