Beinoni
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
In a Beinoni time there should be no war, no terrible illness, no crime. Even if that also means there won’t be any great discoveries, any cures, anything extraordinary. Ezra believes that’s worth fighting for.
In fact, he’s been training most of his life to fight a battle to determine whether Beinoni time continues, or gives way to a more violent, less certain future. He is the Nivchar, the chosen one, with the sign of the scales on his skin. When he comes of age at his bar mitzvah, so too will the gurya, a fiery beast of uncertain form, emerging from a cave to conquer, destroy, and herald a time of conflict.
But Ezra begins to sense that something is very wrong. His friends, his neighbors, the whole world is losing the careful, even balance he’s come to expect in a Beinoni time. It was always uncertain whether he’d be able to best his terrifying, magical foe. But now, is it even possible?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A Jewish boy struggles with his duty as a protector of the world in this byzantine fantasy from Lowe (The Dubious Pranks of Shaindy Goodman). Ezra Safran is the Nivchar, someone destined to fight the gurya, a fiery beast of indeterminate form, on the night of the Nivchar's mitzvah. If the Nivchar defeats the gurya, the world will enter an 80-year period of peace and stability known as Beinoni time; if the Nivchar loses, violent horrors will be unleashed. As his bar mitzvah nears, Ezra worries his lifelong training won't be enough to win against the beast. When he narrowly escapes a kidnapping attempt and news stories begin cropping up about emerging wars and diseases, he is certain that Beinoni time is ending. But his rabbi father refuses to acknowledge his concerns. Ezra soon befriends orphaned troublemaker Aryeh, and together, with help from Aryeh's foster sister Miriam, the boys investigate Ezra's would-be kidnapper, and they stumble upon a much larger conspiracy that will test Ezra's devotion to his destiny. Though the expository prose can be somewhat dense, the characters' tender relationships and Lowe's astute examinations of the weight of duty and the perceived price of peace make for a complex and thoughtfully rendered fantasy adventure. Ages 8–12.
