Review of The Exiles by Dr OlaOluwakiitan Braithwaite

Can you imagine living in a city and waking up one morning to find the city overtaken by lions? Yes, lions. On every street corner, ready to devour only human beings and not animals. These lions are not interested in animals as prey, these lions are only interested in human flesh. This is no fiction. No. It is Fact. It is History.

The Exiles by Ed Adekola takes the reader on a journey of discovery to the ancient city of Samaria, capital of Israel circa 722 – 720 BC. The reader is transported back in time to a bygone era, to a dark epoch characterised by godlessness, idolatry, and depravity despite stern prophetic warnings.

The ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom of God’s chosen nation, the Israelites, have strayed away from God, and have fallen under divine judgment. Consequently, they are conquered and captured by the powerful and brutal Assyrian Empire, which today is Iraq.

In a bid to break their unity and destroy their national identity, the Assyrian king carries out a large-scale deportation of the ten northern tribes from Samaria to Assyria, thereby erasing their history, and initiating their new identity as the “Ten Lost Tribes”.

After deporting the Israelites, Assyria brought in foreign settlers who became the Samaritan population. These new settlers failed to honour and worship Yahweh, the Eternal God and in turn, also, fell under divine judgment. Yahweh sent in lions that killed them. Terrified, they approached the King of Assyria and ascribed their plight to their ignorance of the rituals of Yahweh, God of the land. The King then ordered a captured Israelite priest to return to return to Samaria to teach the settlers how to fear the Lord.

It is against this historical backdrop that Ed Adekola sets the stage for the powerful story of The Exiles.

The story opens with the protagonist, Micah, the returning priest. Disenchanted, disillusioned, and disgruntled, he reluctantly returns to his homeland to carry out, under compulsion, his assignment. Namely, to appease his God and to intercede on behalf of a political power that annihilated and plunged his own tribe, the Levites, and the nine other tribes into oblivion and obscurity.

As he approaches the city gates, riding on his mule, he asks himself, multiple times, rhetorically, “what am I doing here?”. Torn between his Levitical calling and duty as a priest, and the memory of pain occasioned by personal and collective national loss, he constantly struggles to resolve this conflict throughout the story.

Adekola ingeniously weaves the priest’s story with the stories of three other characters. All females, and, who like the priest, are Hebrew exiles. Through fate or fortune, however, they find their way back to their former homeland, now populated with Gentiles. Each one of them under undesirable circumstances and in disparate stations in life. Like the priest, they too, would appear to be asking themselves, reflectively and silently, that same question: “what am I doing here?”

Naqia, is a young maiden commandeered by the Assyrian King into wedlock with the King’s son, the prince, as his second wife. She is pregnant with the prince’s baby, and her maid, Leah, herself too, an exile doubles up as her friend and companion.

Leah is a strong individual who possesses healing powers and who provides the princess with much needed moral support.

Zeresh, the fourth exile is a free-spirited, ruthless, unethical, unscrupulous, but tormented individual who circumvents deportation and stealthily returns to her former homeland to pursue a life of ignominy.

Together their stories are enmeshed in what forms the plot of The Exiles.

The priest’s opening question, “what I am doing here?” becomes a central and recurring theme of the story as each of The Exiles struggles to find purpose amid sorrow, loss, and anguish, albeit under very different circumstances.

The theme of finding purpose in pain and adversity, in chaos and turmoil symbolises an age-old challenge that mankind faces irrespective of the era that we find ourselves in. Thus, this story illustrates man’s immortal quest for purpose in a world defined by a cosmic conflict between the forces of light and darkness, and good and evil. A world in which everyone is forced to pick a side.

The author’s writing style and language are well situated for the epoch in which he writes. Some modern-day readers unfamiliar with older literature may somewhat struggle with language that is sometimes archaic. Adekola writes evocatively and effortlessly transports the reader into every scene. With powerful imagery and vivid narration throughout the book, the reader can feel the tension, hear the sounds, and smell the aromas conjured in the story.

Reading this book, one can’t help wondering what on earth fires the author’s imagination. Adekola writes with the ease of an experienced author, and it is truly remarkable that a book of this volume, depth and intensity is his first novel.

The book’s genre of historical fiction is enhanced by its compelling storyline. It is an epic novel that is further enriched by suspense and features of a modern thriller. Undoubtedly, this will make it attractive to a contemporary audience. Adekola combines scholastic research skills with his vivid imagination and the result is a powerful work of art that blends biblical history with literary creativity.

The story unravels with each of the characters trying to resolve his or her own inner conflicts amidst the pervading chaos of a city under siege by devouring lions. Beneath this chaos, political turmoil is brewing. Betrayal, intrigue, and the contest for political power are undercurrents that further threaten the stability and security of the city.

Micah encounters an old woman who helps him redefine his purpose in line with God’s plan of redemption for the city of Samaria and her new Gentile inhabitants.

Similarly, the pregnant princess, Naqia by an epiphany discovers her stabilising role in shaping the city’s political landscape in a way reminiscent of biblical Esther.

Leah, the slave maiden, armed with healing powers, is by far the strongest of the exiles, who thrives in her role as a support structure to Princess Naqia, and surprisingly, also, to the King of Assyria.

The story closes with Zeresh, descending into a psychological downward spiral, haunted by past acts of wickedness, and tormented by voices in her head. Believing herself to be unworthy of redemption, decides to end her life, and throws herself off a cliff.

For a first novel, The Exiles is a brilliant piece of literature that earns my rating of 5 stars based on its structure, clear communication of themes, nuanced symbolism, historical accuracy, and character development. It is certainly not a book for shallow minds or the superficial. It is highly recommended as a must-read for young adults and adults alike, Bible scholars, historians, and students of history, philosophy, and perhaps even, political science.

Ed Adekola deserves applause for this audacious and well executed first novel, even as we look forward to discovering what becomes of The Exiles in Part 2.