Princess Sultana's Circle

we have done with poor
Veena.” I said. “Each time one of us hears of an individual
mistreated woman, we will move together to help that one woman in
any way we can.” I paused, “We’ll create a circle of
support.”
    Tahani smiled, “Yes, we
will become known as Sultana’s circle.”
    Haifa expressed her
enthusiasm. “Together, we’ll be a great force.”
    Sara nodded. “I have female
friends that I can trust. They, too, must begin to seek out women
with troubled destinies.”
    Nura squeezed my hand.
“Your circle will benefit many women, Sultana.”
    Never have I felt more
contented with my life, than at that moment.
    Following the example of
the gentle and loving Princess Diana, I know that this spiral of
caring will expand from mother to daughter and down through the
chain of life, even reaching through the centuries
ahead.
    My hope is that every woman
will eventually join my circle, and that every woman in the world
will now reach out to another woman in need.
    And, I pray that the
gracious and merciful Allah will bless every mission.
     

Jean Sasson’s critically
acclaimed and only historical fiction title , ESTER’S CHILD, will be released as an e-book on October 1,
2011
     
    ESTER’S CHILD
    With Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Yassir Arafat linked by
bloodshed yet again, it has become apparent that the violence in
the Middle East never ends, but waits patiently, biding its time to
come again, and again.
    As the circle of violence
continues, Jewish relatives of victims mourn their dead while
Palestinian mourners grieve over their dead.
    What is the history of this
circle of violence? What is daily life like for Jewish and Arabic
inhabitants of Israel and Palestine?
    Jean Sasson’s latest book,
Ester’s Child, reveals the compelling truth of the lives lived by
Jewish Holocaust survivors who fled the violence of Europe as well
as the lives lived by Palestinian refugees who fled the violence of
Palestine.
     
    The prestigious Library
Journal describes the book for readers:
    “ Sasson weaves a remarkable
tale of three families, the Jewish Gales, the Palestinian Antouns,
and the German gentile Kleists whose lives intertwine in mysterious
ways for more than half a century. Interned in the Warsaw Ghetto,
Joseph Gale briefly meets Friedrich Kleist, an SS officer who
decries the horrors he witnesses. After the war, Joseph and his
wife, Ester, among the few members of their extensive families to
have survived the Holocaust, settle in Israel. Jump forward in
time, and Demetrius Antoun is a Palestinian doctor who hates the
Israelis for murdering his friends and family. Michel Gale, son of
Joseph and Ester, is an Israeli officer who hates the Arabs for
trying to deny him a Jewish homeland. His sister, Jordan, and
Christine Kleist, a German nurse seeking to make amends for her
father’s Nazi past by working in a Lebanese refugee camp, are
caught in the middle. In light of the attack on the World Trade
Center, Sasson’s story is keenly relevant, as it exposes the
downward spiral of irrational hatred and the bitterseeds sown in
its path...”
     
    The Historical Novels
Review says ,
    “ ...for anyone who ever
wanted to know how Israel came into existence and why the
Palestinians wish it hadn’t.”
     
    Book List *starred review*
says:
    “ Penned with compassion and
set amid the war-torn backdrop of Europe and the unfolding military
and political drama of the postwar Middle East, this absolutely
riveting cross-cultural saga will have readers eagerly turning
pages in order to reach a suitable stunning conclusion.”
     
    In Ester’s Child, the
international best-selling author of the Princess Trilogy shows
that she is a brilliant storyteller. Her latest work of historical
fiction reveals layers and varieties of hate and love seldom seen
in popular fiction. Both plot and character driven, Ester’s Child
is a passionate book with several love stories set amid the
twentieth century’s most dramatic historical events, from World War
II to the current conflicts in Israel and Palestine.
     
    ###