The city was silently bloating in the hot sun, rotting like the thousands of bodies that lay where they had fallen in street battles.” The book may have the most gruesome start, depicting the destruction of Jerusalem, some 70 years after the death and resurrection of Christ, but A Voice in the Wind tells a story about the most gentle soul imaginable. After watching her city be taken in the Jewish-Roman war, and her family be killed before her, and starving nearly to death, young Hadassah is captured and sold as a slave in Rome to the Roman aristocratic family, the Valerians, and is given to be the personal slave of hedonistic Julia Valerian.
Hadassah’s father just so happened to have been the widows’s son who died and was brought back to life by Jesus, and because of this, Hadassah grew up a Christian. We follow her journey as she serves the Valerian family with a love they have never met before and watch as Marcus Valerian slowly starts to fall for his sister’s strangle, quiet, loyal and selfless “Jewish” slave girl.
Though she hides her Christianity out of fear for her life, she prays for each of her masters, determinedly trying to introduce them to the love of Christ in some way or another. We’re taken on a journey of faith that is tried and tested to the extreme as Hadassah struggles between her faith and her fear, to walk in the footsteps of her Lord and to treat her masters according to His teachings.
At the same time, Artretes, a captured Germanian soldier is forced to fight for his life as a gladiator. In this era of Rome’s decaying society and civilisation, we watch as the barbarian refuses to be sport for Romans to be entertained by, as he fights for his survival and his freedom, and as he asks himself, has he been abandoned by his god?
This was the most amazing book to read at this point of my life, because Hadasssah’s struggles are the extreme versions of what so many young people face today. Her shame at her own fear to speak out in her Lord’s name was incredibly relatable and the way she held to her faith and called upon her God when she felt so confused and alone was inspirational. I loved the way villains appeared in the story; people who were against everything Hadassah was trying to stand for, and she faces them in a way that astounds all, by quietly holding firm and praying for the protection of her masters and mistresses, whom she loves and brings upon herself to bring to Jesus.
Though Hadassah shows her amazing love and loyalty, the reckless and impulsive Julia becomes more and more villainous as people of power in the story take advantage of her naivety and whisper lies into her mind. Julia starts to turn against her once beloved slave, trying to undermine and diminish her at every turn.
The story is written to show the perspectives of different people, and to see the way Julia thought was absolutely infuriating, therefore making me only appreciate Hadassah’s selfless and loving service so much more. That sort of living - loving those who hate you and selflessly serving - is the most inspirational way of living I’ve ever come across, and though Hadassah may have thought she struggled with her faith, I think she was perfectly falling in Jesus’ footsteps, and it is that sort of heart that I pray I will receive. By Olivia Dahdah