“Like her grandparents, her parents had managed to bring only one child into this world, another daughter. And now it was Lydia’s turn to fight for this last piece of her family’s inheritance, this tiny patch of land that represented everything good and safe and noble in this world. Home and her father and purple. Lydia was content if the world had nothing else to offer.”
Bread of Angels By Tessa Afshar, ©2017 Tyndale House Publishers
A famous person once said, “If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.”
I don’t think I quite agree with that statement, but I am very happy to have recently finished a book I could easily revisit many times! Bread of Angels by Tessa Afshar holds so many snippets of Godly truth I’m sure I could glean more the second time around.
The book is Biblical Christian fiction based on the life of Lydia, the seller of purple goods mentioned in Acts chapter sixteen. The story begins in Thyatira, where Lydia was born, and leads the way to the much-anticipated meeting with Paul by the river in Philippi. In this narrative, Lydia leaves her birthplace after a terrible betrayal and wounding loss. Fear grips Lydia throughout her life, but she perseveres until finally finding peace in the redemptive message of Christ!
At the beginning, I never would have imagined myself loving this book as much as I do—the setup for the story seemed a little slow, and the discourse rather lengthy. As I pushed forward, however, I found myself drawn to the character of Lydia, drinking in her adventures and sympathizing with her internal struggles. The story sped up and gained life with every step towards Philippi and her life-changing encounter.
Splashes of wit and humor throughout, combined with the elegant dialog and style (which more than once brought Jane Austen to mind) culminate in a beautiful and satisfying ending.
As brief as this review is, I really have little to say other than that I whole-heartedly recommend you buy or borrow this endearing and well-researched imagining of Lydia’s story!
5/5 stars.
a page out of her book 
I read this book a few months ago and loved it too! It’s a great, spiritually encouraging book that really brings Lydia and the apostle Paul to life.
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