Scrolls & Papyrus Publications

Our first publication is the historical novel, Engedi, 2009 by Elroy

Deimert ISBN 978-0-9685623-6-9.  Deimert is also the author of

Pubs, Pulpits & Prairie Fires (Fernwood 2009) about the On to

Engedi is named after the oasis on the west side of the Dead Sea, in the

Judean desert in Israel. . It was the home of the Shulamite lover in Song of

Solomon, and the hideaway for David when he was on the run from King Saul in

the biblical narratives. Today it is an isolated but luxuriant community fed by the

ancient waters of Ein Gedi, (Spring of the Wild Kid-Goats). In this story, Engedi

becomes a metaphor for David’s dreams of community, culture, and peace in place

of militarism and empire madness, in which Jerusalem and Engedi become poles of

a fierce dialectic. Set against the Hebrew sagas of David, Absalom, and Solomon,

the story parallels the modern Middle Eastern tragedy of imperialism and bigotry

subverting the Semetic cultural common-wealth.  Engedi reflects a meagre well-

spring of hope for humanity in the midst of that on-going tragedy. Here are voices

from 3,000 years past that speak to the dreams and the angst of the modern world,

and in the middle of it all a love story blooms. Set in the generation immediately

previous to the Song of Solomon narrative, it is every bit as passionate as that more