What if the Queen of Sheba’s story was never really about a queen at all, but about two sisters, torn apart by tragedy, who built two very different kinds of power?
Song of Songs follows Makeda, exiled heir turned ruler of Saba, and her half-sister Bilkis, who claws her way onto the throne of Israel and holds it however she must. When Makeda travels to Israel and falls in love with Yetzer, the temple-builder raising Jerusalem’s greatest monument, she finds her sister’s ambition waiting for her on the other side of every gift, every alliance, every kindness.
This is a reimagining for readers who’ve always suspected the official version left something out: dense with ancient-world detail, unflinching about power and its cost, and built around two women the history books remembered very differently than they deserved.
Readers of The Red Tent, Circe and Wisdom’s Daughter will feel at home here.