The Sword and the Well — Ann Chamberlin

The Sword and the Well -- The Conclusion . . . In the early years of Islam, three lives braid together. Khalid ibn al-Wal d never lost a battle, either fighting against the Prophet Muhammad or for him. "Women no longer give birth to the likes of Khalid," the Prophet said. In old age, the general dictates his memoirs to a eunuch scribe, with a new perspective to all the blood he shed. In the desert oasis of Tadmor, twelve-year-old Rayah discovers the dangers of accepting her new religion and her own power. And her mother, in hiding, speaks her real name for the first time in thirteen years. --Volume Three of The Sword and the Well Trilogy

About the author: Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Ann Chamberlin also spent big blocks of time as a child in Europe where her father was visiting professor of mathematics. After flitting from school to school and major to major including theater, history and English, she finally majored in Archaeology of the Middle East at the University of Utah. She spent a summer in Israel excavating the biblical city of Beersheva, traveling throughout the Holy Land and living in the old city of Jerusalem for a month. She has studied Hebrew, Arabic, Egyptian hieroglyphs and ancient Akkadian as well as French and German. She has traveled across all of North Africa, Turkey, Syria and Jordan. She lives in an old farm house on nearly two acres near Salt Lake City. Ann is the author of thirteen historical novels and a non-fiction History Of Women's Seclusion in The Middle East. Her trilogy set in the 16th-century Ottoman Empire was on the bestsellers list in Turkey for over six months. She is the author of many plays which have been produced across the country from Seattle to New York. JIHAD , produced by New Perspectives Theatre in New York City, won The Off-Off Broadway Review's best new play of the year in 1996. Winner of the World Book Award