"Israelite twins with healing gifts feature in Sharon Reiss Baker's suspenseful historical novel Last Days in Moav, about family duty and finding the courage to love.

Decades after his ancestors' exodus from Egypt, Netanel dies in a desert flood. Thereafter, he watches over his siblings Milcah and Gidon through an otherworldly veil. In a mysterious act involving golden light, he aids the twins when they ask for help to heal a goat. Later, the twins offer healings from "beyond" that invoke God, employing folk herbal remedies. Nobody knows whether their abilities are unholy magic or genuine blessings. Gidon's knack for predicting catastrophic weather causes further unrest.

The alternating perspectives result in tension. The twins navigate tribal differences; their enthusiastic brother Avidan fills in key details; and Netanel addresses his future audience--people who "send images across oceans, shoot into space, and witness celestial explosions"--with oracular urgency, expressing his yearning interventions in his siblings' lives. His fabulistic narration is a tantalizing complement to the notion that both the living and the dead have vital stories to tell.

The crisp, straightforward prose covers the death of Moses and the tribe's anticipated crossing into a promised land alongside the twins' desires for their own marriages, despite fears that their strange vocations make them unmarriageable. Their community is fleshed out in terms of their shared living spaces and chores, and in terms of how they respond to the twins' healing work, with their reactions ranging from tacit approval to resentment. When a feud threatens Milcah with an unwanted betrothal, it dials up the book's weighty considerations of obligation and injustice.

In Last Days in Moav, a spiritual novel set in biblical times, preternatural siblings mature through instances of strife and reconciliation."

--Foreword Reviews

"Drama unfolds in the Israelite Encampment in the Moav desert after the biblical exodus from enslavement in Egypt.

Sixteen-year-old twins Milcah and Gidon grapple with their precarious status in the Encampment, both distrusted yet needed for their mystical healing capabilities. Add in Gidon's clubfoot and Milcah's headstrong personality, and the siblings expect to remain unmarried--until the bully Enan and his menacing father attempt to blackmail Milcah into a union. Would the Council regard the siblings' gifts as "healing or magic or trickery"? Milcah, meanwhile, has met Misha'el, a teen from a reviled tribe, who offers the possibility of a marriage based on mutual affection, while Gidon pines after childhood friend Rahel. A healing mission through the desert draws the twins, their love interests, and their younger brother, Avidan, into an overnight quest that will shape their futures. Baker's plucky twins are flawed and sympathetic protagonists. The Encampment is an intriguing setting, imbued with restlessness as the tribes prepare to cross the River Jordan into "the place El had promised us." The biblical trappings comfortably encompass the mystical elements, such as Gidon's religious healing practices and the voice of Netanel, the twins' deceased older brother, who witnesses their life events as a spirit. Netanel declares that the Israelites must "build a new society in the Land" that insists "on justice for victims and accused."

A well-characterized coming-of-age story in an epically unusual setting.

--Kirkus Reviews

"Baker's first foray into YA is historical fiction. Milcah and her twin brother Gidon are 16-year-old healers living in the Sinai desert. They are only months away from entering the land of Israel 40 years after the exodus from Egypt. Hanging over both is the memory of their older brother Netanel, killed in a flood 12 years earlier. All the siblings, including Netanel's spirit, narrate events. While Netanel is unable to interact with anyone directly, he can exhale colors, which can be directed to draw someone's attention. Milcah encounters a young man looking for a healer to help his sister. Flustered, she denies her own identity but continues to be drawn to him, despite knowing he belongs to a different tribe. Born with a deformity to his foot, Gidon has no expectations of being matched with a wife, and so the siblings prepare for a future where they continue to live with their family and work as tribal healers together. Their relationship is strong by virtue of being twins, their shared skills, and the loss of Netanel. Nevertheless, Milcah knows that her skills have none of the supernatural aspects of Gidon's, and she begins to doubt her place in their healings. Circumstances contrive to drive a wedge between them, and Milcah must decide whether to place family obligation above her own happiness. There is no real violence, and romance is limited to kissing and allusions. The main characters are Israelites. VERDICT Worthwhile for readers of YA historical fiction."

--School Library Journal

"Milcah and Gidon possess a supernatural gift for healing, though some people in their tribe whisper that the twins use magic or the help of Egyptian gods. With an ailing mother and an older brother lost to a flood, they've always lived on the margins. At 16, Milcah wants to be seen like other girls instead of feared. Gidon, born with a clubfoot and the ability to foresee disastrous weather, has accepted the fact that he'll likely never have a family of his own. As Moses's people stand on the brink of crossing into the Promised Land, a family betrayal forces Milcah onto a dangerous new path. Yet it's better than the alternative: forced marriage to a merciless bully.

The novel unfolds through four different voices from the same family, including the watchful spirit/rapha of the twins' late brother, Netanel. It's an emotionally painted portrait of secrets, misunderstandings, and betrayal that fractures one family's most precious gifts. Our spirit narrator, while unable to effect changes, reflects on the changes coming for his family and the challenges associated with letting go of the past. The author skillfully capitalizes on a poignant interplay of a helpless Netanel who desperately wants to reach to his siblings from beyond the veil and those in a position to help but whose fear blinds them to the truth. Milcah's and Gidon's personal struggles and continued ties to grief add heartfelt depth. Each voice is distinct in how it views and interacts with the world. The narrators offer youthful and sympathetic perspectives amidst a setting rich in herbal lore, bygone landscapes, mysticism, and daily life in a tribal culture-anchoring the narrative in time and place. This blend of family turmoil, grounded historical detail, and coming-of-age journeys creates a layered, immersive narrative. Recommended. Young adult."

--Historical Novel Society Editor's Choice

"I absolutely adored Sharon Reiss Baker's gripping, enchanting new book, Last Days in Moav. The story transported me back to Biblical days, when mystical desert winds swirled and ancient tribes clashed. Through riveting historical detail and beautifully rendered narrative voices, Last Days in Moav explores the strength and tenacity of a family facing the fight of their lives. I couldn't put it down."

--Stacy Nockowitz, author of The Prince of Steel Pier, a National Jewish Book Award Winner

"A ghost story, a love story, and a history lesson, Last Days in Moav brings to life a fascinating moment of biblical lore. Deeply researched and carefully plotted, Sharon Reiss Baker seamlessly weaves in biblical history with compelling characters that will transport readers to life at the edge of the Land."

--Tammar Stein, author of The Six-Day Hero and The Treasure of Tel Maresha