Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on October 16, 2014

SKOKIE Author Maggie Antons long and winding road led her to a place she could never have predicted: the Talmud.

There is little in her background her upbringing in a secular socialist household and her 30 years working as a clinical chemist that would make her career destination predictable. And as her expertise in the Talmud grew, another aspect about her writing was different: Anton did not take her research to the arena of non-fiction, but used it as fuel to launch enthralling historical fiction.

I realized that nobody seemed to know about this time period, said Anton from Los Angeles where she lives and was raised. I wanted to share it somehow. I had always been a voracious reader of fiction. Im not a non-fiction person. I devour fiction. I decided Im going to write the book that I want to read about Rashis daughters.

She wrote three books, in fact a trilogy about the lives and loves of three daughters of the great Talmud scholar in 11th Century France. These books and subsequent ones not only drew great attention and critical praise, but they were accompanied by author appearances throughout the area.

These were not, however, your typical book tours.

Im not like some authors who just read from their books for 20 minutes, Anton said. I talk about my research. I talk about what I learned and all the cool, amazing stuff.

There is a lot of cool, amazing stuff for her to share when she comes to this area next week. Beginning Oct. 19 when Anton speaks in Skokie and ending Oct. 26 when she is in Chicago, the author will offer up some delicious behind-the-scenes spells from her newest book, Enchantress, which takes place in Fourth Century Babylonia.

She paints a world of magic and spells as played out in an engrossing love story.

Ill share some of the spells, she said about her upcoming appearances. People are very interested in the magic especially the spells that were turned into prayers that you say everyday now. Some of the spells from the Talmud have worked their way into the prayer book. Theres kind of a fuzzy border between a spell and a blessing.

Reading Exodus

The rest is here:

From chemist to author: Talmud scholar creates Jewish historical fiction

Category: Talmud
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