Brenda Lesley Segal presents a thoroughly-researched novel set in the Second Jewish Revolt agianst the Romans, 132-135 CE, during the reign of Hadrian. Simon bar Kokhva is the military and political leader of the revolt. The fictional narrator is Jara, a daughter of Israel, who personifies both the love of the Jew for the land of Israel and the love of life as preserved in Jewish culture throughout the Diaspora. Terrific stuff. It lead this reader to the NOVA special on the Cave of Letters, discovered in the Negev in 1960 and containing many treasures, including letters dictated by bar Kokhva during his years as leader of the Revolt.

Readers of Defiance, about the Bielski brothers in WWII, will recall that Tuvia Bielski was called "bar Kokhva" by some of his admirers. ( )