This tale begins in the city of Ur four thousand years ago, where the previous novel, The Three Brothers of Ur, has taken us with a wealth of detail, as if opening a door into a past world. As the protagonist proudly puts it: “Ur is a city of enlightenment and new discoveries.” The book then takes us on a breathtaking journey through barren mountains and savage nations, interwoven with the spiritual journey of man towards a faith in one God.

I suppose J. G. Fyson had to abandon her first names, Jennifer Grace, as even in the 1960s most people would not have trusted an author with such a feminine name to present such a powerful story – with an exclusively male cast. Do not be mistaken about the heroes’ age: Shamashazir of Ur and Enoch son of Enoch are, at fourteen, in their culture at the threshold of taking responsibility as men and leaders; and little Zepho might be only seven, but has got “the heart of a lion”.

All the time a reader who knows the Old Testament wonders where this story fits in, but the revelation is kept for the last page. A reader not versed in the Bible can follow the journey equally well and enjoy the adventure as such, narrowly escaping death and despair with the characters, and encountering majestic nature and unknown civilisations.

The Three Brothers of Ur and The Journey of the Eldest Son are not only stories of coming of age, but of cultural and religious identity, confrontation, understanding and merging, and we can find our own problems mirrored in Sumerians and Akkadians, nomads and settlers, shepherds and farmers, Mesopotamia and Canaan, polytheists and monotheists.

Christina Egan