Bread of Angels

By: Tessa Afshar

Narrated by: Rendah Heywood

Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Purple. The foundation of an influential trade in a Roman world dominated by men. One woman rises up to take the reins of success in an incredible journey of courage, grit, and friendship. And along the way, she changes the world. But before she was Lydia, the seller of purple, she was simply a merchant's daughter who loved three things: her father, her ancestral home, and making dye. Then unbearable betrayal robs her of nearly everything. With only her father's secret formulas left, Lydia flees to Philippi and struggles to establish her business on her own. Determination and serendipitous acquaintances - along with her father's precious dye - help her become one of the city's preeminent merchants. But fear lingers in every shadow until Lydia meets the Apostle Paul and hears his message of hope, becoming his first European convert. Still, Lydia can't outrun her secrets forever, and when past and present collide, she must either stand firm and trust in her fledgling faith or succumb to the fear that has ruled her life.

©2017 Tessa Afshar (P)2017 Recorded Books

Authors are blessed with creativity.

They have created a work of art with their words. My heart saw God's works and in His works hope, love and forgiveness came alive. It was more than a delightful read. It was a bountiful blessing.

Twists and Turns

This book is worth it. I thought it would cross the line towards cringeworthy but Tessa knows how to toe the line without crossing it. Over the course of 20 years you are thrown into the world of Lydia. This book does an amazing job following the story of Lydia in the book of Acts. It renews your faith in God. Great read!!!!!!!!!

Refreshing

I loved it. It renewed me spiritually. Exactly what I needed to get me out of my slums.

Biblical Fairy Tale?

I enjoy reading fiction based on biblical characters, particularly women. In reading the imagined life of Ruth, Pharaoh's daughter, Rahab, and others I have enjoyed noting how the author weaves biblical scripture into the imagined daily life of the character. Bread of Angels, about the first-century Christian Lydia, has an abundance of this, with an appropriate scripture starting each chapter as well as sprinkling them throughout everyday conversation and private thought processes. Usually there isn't a citation along with these, making one well-versed in scripture (as I would say I am) smile at times with the knowledge that this tidbit of conversation is from, say, Isaiah, or one of the Psalms.

However, certain things detracted from my enjoyment of the book. One is the manner of speech of the characters. Although we are supposed to be seeing them in everyday life, these characters don't speak with everyday language. Of course they were actually speaking Greek, Latin and other languages of the time, and of course this book is having them speak English for the sake of its English-speaking target audience; but it should be an everyday form of English to represent the everyday form of their native languages. Their speech here is too stilted, too formal. There is a dearth of contractions, for one thing, making the speech sound like something from the TV show "I Dream of Jeannie", such as, "I am very sorry, my master."

As I got farther into the story, I began to notice what an amazing set of coincidences propel our heroine to her destiny. She is in the right place at the right time for so many things that she began to remind me of Harvey Kurtzman's comic strip character Little Annie Fanny, a well-endowed blonde bimbo to whom things keep happening. She never does anything to instigate them; she's just always at the right place at the right time for things to happen to her, and so it seems to be with Lydia: discovering a ruse; being protected from bad guys; getting benefactors out of the blue; encountering the apostle Paul; having someone knowledgable in wall construction among Paul's companions; until I was thinking, "Does she ever actively DO anything to steer her life, other than make purple dye?"

There is a scene in which Lydia and her friend Rebecca are tending a sick child and send for a doctor. The doctor applies herbs and poultices and they wait a few hours. Meanwhile Rebecca prays while the doctor expresses her disbelief in prayer to gods. Then the child begins to breathe easier and her fever lessens. Although the doctor has only applied a treatment a few hours earlier, she now states that Rebecca's prayer has healed the girl where her herbs and poultices have failed. Wait... really? They were supposed to work faster than "a few hours" or else they didn't work? How does she conclude it was the prayer and not her treatment that helped? Nope, not buying it.

Although Lydia is a new testament character, little is said about her; particularly her private life, so scripturally we don't know her age and whether she had a husband and children (although logically, if there had been a husband, he would have been involved in inviting Paul, et al to stay at their home). This leaves room for the author to have her be single. When Paul shows up with his companions in tow, there is a certain "Markus" among them who becomes Lydia's love interest. But this courtship seems out of step with the rest of the story. It happens quickly with barely a mention here and there of one of them eyeing the other appreciatively. Then suddenly Markus is proposing, Lydia panics, and after a spiritual pep talk from her friends, she accepts. And then... nothing. We don't get any insight into their relationship or how it affects Lydia's life; in fact, the story wraps up right after that, leaving a feeling that the author said, "Well, time to wrap things up. I can't leave Lydia without a man, though. What to do? I know, I'll use one of Paul's companions. There! Now I can finish the book."

And they all lived happily ever after.

Wonderful Story

This was truly an enjoyment to listen to. The story was well written and the narrator had pleasing voice full of emotion. I hung on every word and felt myself being caught up with this story.

Couldn’t quit listening!

This is my first book to read/listen to by Tessa Afshar. I’m now a huge fan!! Starting on the next one!

I really wanted to like it

I really wanted to like this book, but it is painfully stupid. The dialogue is insipid, and requires the listener to be convinced that the characters were fluent English speakers. I think I’ve made it nearly to the end of the childhood flashback, but I don’t think I can slog along any further. The narrator has a lovely voice and accent.

tessa never disappoints

Loved it... Amazing story of Lydia. TessaTessa's beautiful way with words make the reader feel the biblicial fictious reasons behind these great women in the bible for turning to God may have happened that way

IMHO, the worst of Tessa Afshar's books because...

...of the descriptions of animal abuse, which is completely unnecessary to the story, is not uplifting or inspirational, and completely detracted from the love of God in Christ Jesus and Lydia's story. Lydia has a lot of hardships in life, as do we all, but the cruelty and hardness of heart of the ones who hurt her and hurt other people could have been described in a different way.

Narrator is good, and story is good otherwise.

06/11/21 Listened to this story again, forgetting about the animal cruelty described in ch. 34, and again was very disturbed by the necessity to mention this at all. It does nothing for the story, it does nothing uplifting, it does nothing positive in any way and detracts so much from the story and the focus of blessing from God and from Lydia's life that I did not finish the story this time. I cannot listen any further. If this book was Tessa Afshar's most recent book, I would not listen to any more by this author.

Bread of Angels

Absolutely loved this book and narrator . Stupendous ,brilliant full of Biblical knowledge and foresight!!! Would give it 6 stars if it were available!!!

Brilliant!

Well done yet another wonderful story by Tessa Afshar bringing both character and history to life!

Captivating well woven story

At first I struggled to be drawn into the story because of the narration. The voice actor was very monotone, with hardly any drama. However the strength of Tessa Afshar story telling hooked me and kept me glued till the end.