Jacob

"It seemed in life he was always late. Or later. Born the younger of twins. Emerged from womb-to-world grasping his brother's heel. So Esau emerged first. Red, ruddy, glowing... but he, Jacob, clinging tightly to his brother's heel, the younger made his entrance known. He would NOT be ignored."

Jacob is famously known as one of the three Biblical Patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob - in that order. Some may know him by several monikers - Grasper, Supplanter, Manipulator. But did you know him as a Wrestler? Yes, a Wrestler. Jacob was a Wrestler. He wrestled hard: with his twin, with his father, with his father-in-law, with his wives, with himself, with life, with God. Sound familiar? Life was a constant struggle but a shirker he was not. This book tells the story of what happens when one strives as hard as Jacob did to try and fulfill his own destiny.

Liz Chua is less an historian of ancient events and more an eyewitness to them: her recreation of the story of Jacob has the weight and texture of lived experience, as though she's observed the scheming Patriarch's tumultuous life close up, from an unsafe distance. The effect is a tale that implicates us, embroils us, pulls us into itself like a man who ambushes us to wrestle us, and wound us, and bless us.
- Mark Buchanan, author of the David Trilogy