The authors hope you´ve enjoyed this mixture of historical and contemporary fiction. The novel´s predecessor, Hadassah, One Night with the King, was a fictional adaptation of a biblical story, with only a modern "book-end" story and a few "fill-in-the-blank" additions.

This sequel´s structure and settings, however, are quite different. Its story is completely fictional, although large chunks of it are developed from both ancient and recent history. This makes it more challenging for you, the reader, to distinguish fact from fiction. The following may help.

Here is a list of the major plot points that actually took place:

• Most importantly, as of this writing there is an actual Jewish/Iraqi exile living in London who has revived the office of the Exilarch and made reparations claims on behalf of his fellow Iraqi Jews in international legal venues. However, it is also very important to note that our character of Anek al-Khalid is inspired by, but not modeled after, this individual. Every other aspect of our character is fictional For a list of the most notable differences, please see the link below.
• King Xerxes of Persia was in fact murdered in precisely the manner described. All the events surrounding Artaxerxes´ response, the killing of Prince Darius and the revenge against Artabanus, are faithfully drawn from historical accounts.
• The Susa palace did in fact burn to the ground within a decade of the events in the Book of Esther, compelling the Persian Court to largely move to Persepolis
• All of the novel´s descriptions of Ezra and Nehemiah—with the exceptions of their dealings with Esther—are biblical and historical.
• All of the modern descriptions of Jewish life in Baghdad, the farhod of 1941, Operations Ezra and Nehemiah, along with the tiny numbers of remnant Jews in Iraq and Baghdad´s Battaween Quarter, are based on historical facts.
• All the modern descriptions of the Israeli Prime Minister´s residence, its location and the location of his office, are accurate.
• The Iranian city of Hamadan, in fact one of the world´s oldest cities, does in fact hold not only the ruins of the Persian palace of Ecbatana, but twin tombs reputed to hold the remains of Esther and Mordecai.
• Every discussion of the Exilarch and its role through history is factual. Mordecai was at the very least a de facto Exilarch (leader of the exiled Jews), and quite possibly the first official one, although that is not proven. Also, our descriptions of historic relations between the Jewish and Muslim communities of the Middle East (the warm, brotherly tolerance which dominated long periods of Iraqi life) are quite factual. For years on end, Muslim rulers revered their Jewish brethren and relied on their administrative talents as key to national prosperity.
• As you will discover if you follow the links or the references of various articles and web pages quoted before chapters, they are completely accurate. (We cannot be responsible for URLs falling out of date; however, we can assure you that as of this writing, they were current and available on the Web.) The legacy of the Exilarch, and the tensions surrounding its office, are accurate. In particular, a secret campaign by squads of coalition countries to retrieve stolen antiquities is truly underway. The Italian Viper 5 squad is a completely factual group.
• Paris´ Louvre Museum does in fact hold most of the treasures of the Susa Palace.

Most everything else, especially the fictional character of Leah and the fates of Esther and Mordecai, is fictional. We hope you´ve enjoyed this peek into "what might have been"!

In order to minimize the odds of a reader who has not yet read the story stumbling inadvertently into a batch of serious "plot spoilers," we´ve annexed the next part of our list––that of events which did not occur––to a special email-in site. Simply enter your email address to reveal plot points that are not based on history.