Rebecca Kohn

Related from the perspective of Esther herself, The Gilded Chamber is a wonderfully evocative retelling of the Biblical Book of Esther. The reader is immediately submerged into the magical setting of the ancient Persian city of Susa, where we follow Esther’s transformation from a young Jewish orphan into a noble and judicous queen.

Rebecca Kohn lives in New Hampshire with her husband and daughter. The Gilded Chamber is her first novel. Scroll down to read our interview with Rebecca Kohn where she tells how she researched the book and what inspired her to write The Gilded Chamber.

Click here to see what the Edgware Synagogue Ladies Reading Circle thought of The Gilded Chamber.

more about the book

Hadassah daughter of Avihail is ten when she is orphaned and sent to live with her cousin Mordechai, to whom she has been betrothed since she was just two years old. Despite the harsh loss of both her parents, Hadassah is happy that she will be reunited with her betrothed, as she has not seen him for 2 years since he departed Babylon to serve as a treasury official in the court of King Xerxes; here Mordechai has felt it necessary to mask his Judaism, and he therefore goes under the moniker ‘Marduka the Babylonian’.  Whilst Hadassah’s sojourn there is spent happily enough, assisting the housekeeper Aia with the daily chores, and spending time with her beloved cousin in the evenings, she is disappointed that there is no mention at all of marriage.

Meanwhile at the king’s palace, Queen Vashti, beautiful and cruel in equal measure, has been banished for daring to disobey Xerxes’ order that she display her beauty before all the court. However, since her exile, the king has found himself unhappy, taking little pleasure even in his remaining concubines, and it is agreed that the harem must be replenished with young virgins. So it is that Hadassah comes to be uprooted once again, and she is taken by the king’s men; before she is carried off, Mordechai warns her to conceal her faith, and he assigns to her the propitious name of ‘Esther’. It is surely no coincidence that Mordechai and Hadassah’s chosen names are remarkably similar to those of the ruling Babylonian deities, Marduk and Ishtar.

Time passes and Xerxes is yet to find a woman matching Vashti’s stunning beauty to crown as his new queen. For a whole year Esther is meticulously groomed, as is the custom, before she may appear before the king and spend one night with him. All the virgins look forward to the night when they will have the opportunity to win the king’s favour, and Esther’s turn is met with particular anticipation. For Hegai, the stout eunuch who oversees the harem, has taken particular care in the hope that Xerxes may find a queen in her. When the time comes, he adorns her in the garb of the goddess Ishtar, with the intention that she will appear to have been sent down from the very heavens. Hegai’s plan succeeds admirably, as Esther manages to charm Xerxes with her personality as well as her looks, and the very next morning Xerxes announces that he has found a new queen.

Her continued favour is assured when a servant reports to her news of a plot to kill the king, and she warns him before he is able to drink the poisoned wine. The warning had in fact originated from her cousin, Mordechai, but the man who apprehended the would-be assassins is given all the credit instead. This man, Haman, is made chief adviser, and before long he has won over not only the king’s complete trust, but also the king’s royal signet ring. Being rather too fond of wine, Xerxes holds little interest in the administrative matters of the state fitting for a king, so he is only too happy to delegate the lion's share of his authority to Haman.

Esther, on the other hand, is deeply suspicious of Haman and his wife Zeresh, whom she is compelled to entertain on an almost daily basis. There is serious cause for concern among the servants who notice that many of the king’s long-established advisers are being dismissed or even executed at Haman’s instigation, and that King Xerxes is deeply suspicious of anyone but Haman, before whom all must bow.
When an edict is issued from Haman that all the Jews in the kingdom should be destroyed, Mordechai appeals to Esther to petition the king, and thus it comes to pass that the fate of her people lies in her hands.

In addition to the scintillating plot, the novel is further enriched by a range of sympathetic characters and beautifully atmospheric descriptions of the surroundings. The opulence of the palace is conjured up in all its splendour of rich fabrics and gilded ornaments, and the reader is treated to fantastically vivid images of life in the harem, of haoma laced wine and elaborate beauty preparations: with the unguents and salves, perfumes and depilatory treatments, one can almost smell the intoxicating scents of rose water and sweet almond oil.

interview with the author

What inspired you What inspired you to write this book?

I knew the story of Esther from a very young age but I never imagined Esther as more than a pretty face, a good girl who does what she is told to do. I began to think about everything she went through—being torn from her home, confined to a harem, losing contact with those she loved, and having to make her own way in the midst of the inevitable court intrigue. I became excited about the idea of exploring the story from Esther’s neglected point of view. I felt it was time she had a voice.

How did you research the book?

The story is clearly set in the court of King Xerxes in Persia (modern day Iran) in the fifth century BC. I was very lucky because the historical record on the time and place is so good. There are both classical and modern histories as well as a terrific archaeological record of King Xerxes and his palaces. I also read a lot of biblical commentary from both Christian and Jewish authors. I discovered a whole world of biblical archaeology that is not sectarian—its goal is to explore the historical and archaeological setting for the biblical text. So, in short, I did quite a lot of reading. I sought out maps, photos, and information on fauna and flora of Persia to help with authenticity.

In the Author's Note, you credit Yoram Hazony's book with making you think of Esther as a character with real depth'. What was your impression of Esther before this, and how has your perception of her as a character changed since writing the book?

As I mentioned above, I, like many people, thought of Esther as a one-dimensional girl who wins a beauty contest and then follows her cousin’s instructions. In my mind, Mordechai was the brains in the family. When I realized how important Esther’s role is and then went back to the text, I saw that what she accomplished required wit, courage, and compassion. (Of course beauty didn’t hurt!) She goes through a crisis of sorts, when she has to decide whether to risk her life for her people. I realized that history had short-changed her. Now I think of Esther as the main character—after all the book is named for her—and a woman with many admirable qualities, but also someone not so different from you and me.

Why do you think it is that Mordechai is happy to conceal and renounce his life as a Jew until his people are in crisis? Has he held Judaism in his heart all along, or is it only the threat of death that causes him to embrace his faith?

I have to say that my interpretation of his character is somewhat controversial. In the past people have imagined Mordechai to be a wise old man, a devout Jew who sits in the king’s gate spouting sagely wisdom. But that would not have been historically accurate. Sitting in the king’s gate actually meant that he served as a court functionary. We even have records from Xerxes’ time which list a treasury official by the name of Marduka, which would have been the Persian version of his name. Moreover there is a long tradition of the court Jew in history. But for any ambitious person to get ahead in that environment, he would have had to assimilate to the dominant culture, at least to some degree. Think of today’s high-powered corporate world as a very rough comparison. While we are much more tolerant of religious diversity, there is by necessity a requirement that people adopt the cultural norms and values of the organization. In the court of a king at that time, downplaying or even hiding one’s religion, if it was not the king’s religion, would have been necessary. So I think of Mordechai as an ambitious executive who wants to fit in to get ahead.

In my story I motivate Mordechai’s change as a reawakened sense of loyalty to his people which comes only after he loses Esther. That loss triggers a realization of everything else he has given up in order to succeed at court. His crisis is that he realizes it hasn’t been worth it. And of course once he admits to himself who he truly is, a Jew as well as a court functionary, he is more successful at court than he ever thought possible. In that sense his story is more about embracing his cultural background than faith.

Xerxes is portrayed as a tyrant and a fool, but his character is nonetheless a sympathetic one, as we see him through the eyes of Esther who is able to see the man he might have become. Why was it important to soften his character in this way?

I did not start out thinking of softening him so much as trying to understand how Esther, a young woman of fourteen, would have seen him. He’s a little like a rock star in her eyes. She has to figure out how to manage him, despite his power, his tantrums, and his handlers who get in the way. I also thought it was important to show him as a real human being, in keeping with trying to imagine how the story we have from the bible might actually have happened. Believe it or not, my portrait of him is not that far off from the descriptions we have from historians.

Although there are many secular themes that will resonate strongly with a modern
readership, to what degree would you say this is religious fiction?

I set out to write a historical novel. Of course the fact that the book of Esther is from the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) means that is will have religious connotations to at least some of its readership. But this is the only book in the entire bible that never once mentions God. It is religious only in the sense that religious values tell us to put the well being of others before ourselves and to act with courage and compassion. I see it much
more as a story about courage, love, friendship, the importance of fighting against tyranny and injustice, and remaining true to your own history.

What is your religious background?

I was raised in a moderately observant Jewish home. But like many, my religious education was very limited. As an adult I have come to the bible with fresh eyes and thus been willing to set aside some of the traditional notions about the characters.
 
Have you had any ideas for your next novel? Are you at all tempted to fictionalize
another Biblical story, or do you plan to move on to something else? If so, what?

I have another biblical novel coming out next spring. It tells the story of the Exodus from Egypt from two alternating points of view—Miryam (sister of Moses) and Tzipporah (wife of Moses.) It is a more complex book than The Gilded Chamber but I really enjoyed writing it. Right now I am researching a new novel that will take place in Jerusalem and its environs at the end of the first century and involve both early Christianity and the fall of the second Temple.

Could you recommend two books for reading groups to read?

One of my favorite contemporary authors is Vikram Seth and I loved An Equal Music. I think that would be a marvelous book to discuss in a book group. Another beautiful and thought-provoking book is Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels.