Vashti's Daughter

Every year in February, the Hebrew month of Adar 14,  Jews commemorate being saved from annihilation by King Ahasuerus of Shushan by celebrating the holiday of Purim and reading the Magillah scroll that tells the story of the heroic deeds of Queen Esther. 

But before Esther, there was Vashti, the king’s first wife. Her defiance of his order to debase herself for the amusement of his cronies led to her being banished. This paved the way for Esther to take her place as Queen and become exalted as a heroine of her time.

 While Vashti was never heard from again.

What became of this defiant woman? What was her true motivation for defying the king’s order? Throughout the centuries, Vashti  has been both vilified and praised. She’s either the bitch of the land, or the first Feminist. The argument has been raging for decades.

Vashti’s Daughter definitively ends the debate.

At some future time twenty-nine year old newly divorced Anna Steine, sole owner of Steine and Steine, a Los Angeles book publisher, will remember that it was exactly 2:18 pm when two items appeared on her desk; an invitation to her friend’s Purim party and an unsolicited manuscript entitled “Vashti’s Daughter.”

These items will take her on a journey back to 366 BCE where she will have to break an ancient curse in order to find true love in the present, risk her business and forever change the world’s opinion of the true heroine of the ancient story.