Maggie Anton is the author of the new novel The Midwives' Escape. Her other books include the novel The Choice. She is also a Talmud scholar and expert in Jewish women's history.
Q: What inspired you to write The Midwives’ Escape?
A: My family used to watch the live action film The Ten Commandments and we still watch Prince of Egypt as we prepare for our Seder. It frustrated me that they both ended at the same spot: Moses bringing the tablets down from the mountain.
But I’ve studied enough Torah to know that receiving the Ten Commandments at Sinai was only the beginning of the Israelites’ journey. So I decided to begin the novel, starting after the 10th plague.
Q: What did you see as the right balance between the biblical story and your own interpretation?
A: I admit that I tried to follow the biblical story as much as possible while including two Egyptian midwives as my POV. Thankfully for me, the biblical story leaves many gaps in the narrative, which I saw as an enticement/challenge to fill. I tried to avoid directly confronting the Bible authors by writing something that pointed out their errors and/or impossibilities.
Q: Rabbi and author Rachel Adler said of the book, “Anton envisions vividly the daily life, crafts, and skills required for survival in the wilderness.” What do you think of that assessment? How did you research the novel, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?
A: I had help from the many biblical scholars who are writing about The Exodus and how the Israelites settled the land. Clever archaeologists utilized Carbon-14 to show how long ago these houses were built. But they had no trouble determining where exactly the Israelites settled.
Their four-room houses were different from the Canaanites’ and to prove these dwellings had housed Israelites’, archaeologists dug up their hearths and compared the contents. The Canaan hearths were older and contained many pig bones, while the Israelites’ hearths, both inside and outside the house, were devoid of pig bones.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the novel?
A: I want them to see what the Israelites were doing during the so-called 40 years wandering in the desert. Also learn more accurately how/if Israelites actually conquered the Promised Land.
Archaeologists and modern Bible scholars mostly agree that the people who lived in Canaan, including Israelites, remained there on the flat land between hills. When the Israelites arrived, they claimed the vacant hilly land for vineyards and olive trees.
The Canaanites didn’t object; they could trade their wheat and barley to the Israelites, who would trade wine, beer and olive oil in return. But the biggest benefit to both would be the ability to combine armies to protect their families and lands from the Philistines and other marauders.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m working on Serach’s Story, a spinoff from Midwives’ Escape, which describes the unusually long life of Serach bat Asher.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I learned that Egypt welcomed foreigners after the great famine of 1188 sent many people, including Israelites, to Egypt for food. Some, like Hittites, were mercenary soldiers, so I had them man the palace guard.
But the most intriguing were Lagash. Unlike other communities, it was Lagash tradition that a woman could marry more than one man at a time, as long as they were brothers. Of course I was intrigued; what woman wouldn’t be? Plenty of biblical men had two wives; why shouldn’t a woman have two husbands?
So I couldn’t resist introducing two orphan brothers who were apprenticed to my older heroine’s father, and later married my younger heroine.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Maggie Anton.
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