City Of Peace: The Red-Headed First-Born

Everybody knows the legends of King David - the years of persecution by King Saul, the stone that killed Goliath, his friendship with Jonathan, his love for Michal and Bathsheba, the building of Jerusalem, the Psalms, the sons who tried to take his throne. Yet decades of archaeology in Israel have sought in vain for a historical King David, while two centuries of study in Comparative Mythology and ancient languages have found a very different King David from the one presented in the Bible. Now, in this two-part "auto-biography", David Prashker has brought together everything that is known in an account of the life of King David that will often take you by surprise.

Book One: The Red-Headed First-Born recounts the first half of the life of King Yedid-Yah (David), the years that brought King Sha'ul to the throne as the first King of Yisra-El: the early years in Beit-Lechem Ephratah (Bethlehem) when he was still Daoud the goat-herd; the anointment by the Prophet Shmu-El; the years in Gilgal and Giv-Yah as a member of the royal choir and as armour-bearer to the King; the slaying of Goliath and his friendship with Prince Yah-Natan; the years of exile and banditry after his marriage to Princess Michal; his first throne as King of Tsiklag; and then the death of Sha'ul that would lead to his becoming King of Yisra-El.

Book Two: The Waxing of the Moon recounts the second half of the life of King Yedid-Yah: his seven-year reign in Chevron (Hebron); the conquest of the seven towns that would become the great conurbation of Yiru-Sala'am (Jerusalem); the failed attempt to establish Yeshurun, the spiritual realm; the building of a national confederation, founded in the twelve tribes and the cult of Yah, Yahweh and their ever-dying-ever-reborn son, known as Tammuz, Ba'al, Adonis, or simply as Dodi, the "Beloved Son", or as Daoud, King Yedid-Yah. The stories, too, of his many loves and marriages; the sons who tried to take his throne; his friendship with King Hu-Ram of Tsur (Tyre); the farcical attempt to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem.

In City of Peace you will encounter David the Psalmist but also Daoud the warrior who was prohibited from building the Temple because his hands were stained with blood. And finally, ending where the novel began, the choice of Shlomo (Solomon) as his successor, and the king's slow, agonising death, impotent and paralysed, still clinging on to power and writing his memoirs as a way of trying to control posterity as well.

City of Peace is at once an extraordinary adventure story and a work of profound scholarship. A historical novel not to be missed.