My Review
Fast paced and engaging, Daughter of a Promise tells the story of a young, female executive who is drawn in to the demanding, wealthy and indugent lifestyle of Wall Street. Coming of age and navigating friendships, new romances and a taxing job, Betsabé struggles with her life in the big city. Tempted by attention she receives from David, her handsome older boss, she juggles other relationships until, during the pandemic, Bets and David have the unique opportunity to spend uninterupted time together to allow their infatuation to grow into something worth keeping. I thouroughly enjoyed Jeanne Blasberg’s modern day retelling of the biblical story about David and Bathsheba; Daughter of A Promise explores the age old topics of power, inappropriate romance, family and ambition.
Author Q & A
Q: What inspired you to write Daughter of a Promise?
A: My inspiration was twofold in that I’d always wanted to write a character starting off her adult life in New York, feeling a sense of excitement, overwhelm, and awe. I folded that young woman, filled with hopes and dreams into another story I was compelled to write, a modern retelling of the story of David and Bathsheba. Not only had the brevity of that ancient tale left me with many unanswered questions, the liaison read as contemporary, having parallels to the conversations going on at the time of my writing around consent and powerful men being taken down in the #MeToo movement. In my retelling, King David is turned into a titan of Wall Street and Bathsheba becomes Bestabé Ruiz, an analyst in an investment banking training program.
Q: Can you explain the title?
A: The name Betsabé literally translates to “daughter of a promise” or “daughter of the covenant.” In the opening pages, she refers to the fact it is an uncommon name, what it means, and also what it means to her.
Q: In what way can you relate to your main character, Betsabé?
A: That desire to write about a young woman beginning an investment banking training program with a sense of overwhelm was strong because back in the ’80’s I was that American Studies major who had surprisingly landed such a job. I could barely keep my head above water. Betsabé begins with some of those same feelings, but she is one smart cookie and rises to the top of her class.
Q: Typically we assume an older man who is the boss at work has the power in a relationship with a young female employee. Do you think Bets had any power over David?
A: Over the course of the novel, the power in the relationship certainly shifts to rest more with Betsabé. Get David out of his corner office and away from his screens and his deals and he is a more vulnerable, insecure human. Betsabé carries their child which infuses her being with the primal power of creation, a power no man can match.
Q: Why did you decide to include the pandemic as a backdrop for a portion of the novel?
A: I was immersed in the pandemic as I wrote and describing it felt immediate and necessary. But the pandemic and its shutting down offices and sending people into sequestration also helped with the plot in that it afforded a relationship which would have been highly scrutinized and criticized in the public eye, to incubate and foster into something that transcended the physical.
Q: The entire book was written as a letter from Bets to her unborn son. Why did you make that choice?
A: Every author has to answer the “why” question… Why is it necessary for this narrator to tell this story at this time. In the Book of Samuel, Bathsheba and David go on to have more children including Solomon who would carry the mantle of wisdom and succeed David as king. As I imagined why Betsabé needed to tell her tale, I saw her as an apprehensive mother after suffering tragedy, and that writing a letter would calm her nerves, a letter would pass down wisdom to Sol, and also would be a way to get her story into the world in her own words.
Q: How did you organize your thoughts, plot points and chapters prior to writing?
A: I organize my thoughts as I write. The early drafts had the story revealing itself in a completely different order – with the revelation of her pregnancy. So the answer to your question is that I don’t organize anything ahead of time, I always feel disorganized, attempting to write toward the answer. For example, deciding to re-write the novel as a wisdom letter in the retrospective was one of the last things I did. This may sound inefficient, but as you get into the the project, it reveals itself and I just have to muster the endurance and willingness to rewrite.
Q: What books have you read recently that you recommend? Do you read physical books or listen to audiobooks?
A: In the vein of retellings, I recently finished James by Percival Everett which was incredible. I read both physical books and listen to audio books – often have several books going at once. I consume a greater percentage of books via audio!!
Q: What do you do in your spare time?
A: I own and steward a regenerative farm in Verona, WI where we grow vegetables for a restaurant chain called Forage Kitchens. This is a new farm and we are installing infrastructure and renovating buildings. We have introduced livestock and are attempting to create many circular systems with compost and manure to increase fertility and soil health.
Q: Where can we follow you to keep up with all you are doing?
A: My website is great place to start! www.jeanneblasberg,com
You can also follow me on instagram @jeanneblasbergauthor
I am writing a monthly substack newsletter in which I muse on writing, farming, and parenting: https://jeanneblasberg.substack.com/
About the Author
Jeanne Blasberg is an award-winning and bestselling author and essayist. Her novel THE NINE (SWP 2019) was honored with the 2019 Foreword Indies Gold Award in Thriller & Suspense and the Gold Medal and Juror’s Choice in the 2019 National Indie Excellence Awards. EDEN (SWP 2017), her debut, won the Benjamin Franklin Silver Award for Best New Voice in Fiction and was a finalist for the Sarton Women’s Book Award for Historical Fiction. Her new novel, DAUGHTER OF A PROMISE is a modern retelling of the legend of David and Bathsheba, completing the thematic trilogy she began with Eden and The Nine.
Jeanne cochairs the board of the Boston Book Festival and serves on the Executive Committee of GrubStreet, one of the country’s preeminent creative writing centers. Jeanne was named a Southampton Writer’s Conference BookEnds Fellow in April 2021. She reviews contemporary fiction for the New York Journal of Books, When not in New England, she splits her time between Park City, UT, and growing organic vegetables in Verona, Wisconsin.
