SHAVA HAS STEPPED INTO MANHOOD just as his boyhood dreams
come crashing down. Then worse tragedy strikes—
forcing him into a rushed journey toward faraway Parthia,
which he only lately has discovered to be his birthplace.
He’s just learned also that his unknown father
was actually the Parthians’ greatest military hero,
slain in battle against the Romans just before Shava’s birth.
Parthia is now a troubled land awaiting a promised deliverer—
but Shava is reluctant to embrace a strange prophecy from long ago
that makes him that exalted figure to rescue his true countrymen.
Shava finds Parthia’s existence greatly weakened by civil war.
Through tumultuous circumstances, his physical prowess
opens his way into inner circles of the competing sides.
Shava ultimately clashes with them all, while his wildish faith
pushes him toward ever more sacrificial love—
for the woman he must have for his wife,
for an intimate friend who shows himself a traitor—
and for the country that’s his both by choice and by blood.
How long can a young man survive in a land where he’s wanted dead
by seemingly every powerful person of any significance?
Can love thrive when a young woman and young man
must daily expect death?
Can any faith survive when life brings only disaster?
