In Bathsheba, Torgny Lindgren creates a

world as rich, strange, and distnrbing as one

is likely to find in fiction. It is the time of

King David, who rules the Israelites by

divine right. But David succumbs to his

earthly impulses when he sees Bathsheha

bathing and knows he must have her.

Snatched by David from hcr husband,

Bathsheba displays maturity and strength of

character unusual in one so young, and

exerts a powerful fascination over David.

In this rich reworking of the ()hi Testa-

meu! story of David and Bathsheha,

Lindgren shows us a woman who is not only

the power behind the throne but a woman far

ahead of her time. Through the fall of Rab-

bah, the rape of Tamar, and Absalom s

bauishment, Bathsheha s power in the

kingdom grows, as does the imperfect hut

inviolable love site shares with her king.

Finally, as David experiences the eroding of

his ahnost mythical power and virility,

Bathsheba realizes hcr greatest triumph: the

king s promise that her son, Solomon, will be

the future king.