The idea for Rebel Daughter stems from an inscription on an ancient gravestone discovered in southern Italy. It commemorates the death, at the age of 25, of “Claudia Aster, captive from Jerusalem,” and was erected by “Tiberius Claudius Masculus, freedman of the emperor.”Flavius Josephus becomes involved in the story.Kaufmann began to speculate about the sort of events that might have brought these two people together – a Roman freedman and a Jewish girl originally named Esther (Aster is the Romanized version) who was taken captive during the uprising in Jerusalem and brought to Italy.
For another review of this recent novel by Lori Kaufmann, see here.
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