It’s always a big deal for an author to get a nice review from Publisher’s Weekly. So when this one for The Promised Land popped into my inbox a few weeks ago, I was delighted.

“Characters from Musser’s The Long Highway Home return in this touching story of four pilgrims walking the French Camino… (see image below for more of the review).

Of course, I chuckled a little because The Promised Land is actually the third book in The Swan House Series. But the reviewer is right in that readers will appreciate added depth if they’ve read The Long Highway Home, especially since Rasa, the seven-year-old Iranian refugee who loves Jesus in a simple, profound, and mysterious way, is now a beautiful teenager who steals a young man’s heart.

The Swan House and The Dwelling Place have been on sale in past months. So now, as we’re in the final stretch before The Promised Land is released, I’m putting The Long Highway Home on sale this week only.

Click on the image below to order.

All of the novels I pen hold a very special place in my heart. The Long Highway Home and The Promised Land are so special because they tell fictional stories based on real stories. One of my favorite things to research for The Long Highway Home was Persian quotes by the amazing poet Rumi.

• 

• 

• 

Another of my delights was writing the scene below from The Long Highway Home that is based on a real Christmas program held for refugees each year:

The refugee thought she would watch the puppet show for her young daughter, but almost instantly she felt a certain flip-flop in her stomach. The play was called “Jesus, the Refugee.” She listened as the narrator, speaking in English and being translated into Farsi, Arabic, and German, told of Mary and Joseph going on a long journey. Mary rode on the back of a donkey, and she was heavy with child. The narrator explained how tired Mary and Joseph were, how long the trip took, and how once they reached the desired village, there was no room for them!

Ah, yes, she understood that. No room! She found herself nodding silently, and, to her surprise, many other heads were nodding too. Yes, they could all understand this story.

She nodded again when the narrator told of Mary giving birth to Baby Jesus in a barn. She thought of her own baby’s birth and bit her lip to keep from crying. This story was so very hard and so very familiar!

Then the narrator explained how Mary and Joseph had to take the Baby Jesus and flee into another country for safety because of an evil king. She felt a tear trickle down her cheek. Why had she never heard this story before? Jesus had been a refugee just as surely as her baby was one now.

She had heard that Jesus was the Savior born of a Virgin, that He was God and perfect and could forgive sins; that He was magnificent and powerful, that He had chosen to give these things up to become like her—a human. But she had never heard that Jesus had been a refugee.

Suddenly, this Jesus seemed all the more interested in her life, in her family’s life. She could not stop the tears as she watched the makeshift stage where the puppets told a story that broke her heart and brought it alive with hope. This Jesus did understand, just as she had heard. Jesus could identify with all of her pain.

Jesus had been a refugee.

(from The Long Highway Home, c2016, Elizabeth Musser)

I so hope you are able to enjoy this story and do want to remind you that there’s also a great pre-order special going on with my publisher for The Promised Land. Not only is the novel available at 40% reduced price but those who pre-order will get a signed bookplate. It’s been thrilling to receive photos of readers who have already gotten their signed copies!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I’m praying for all of us during this tense time in our country and our world. Dear readers, may we be light shining in darkness! And will you please pray that the hope of Jesus that is wrapped up in each of my novels will penetrate the minds and hearts and souls of all who read them? Thank you so much and Blessings!

ELIZABETH MUSSER writes ‘entertainment with a soul’ from her writing chalet—tool shed—outside Lyon, France. Find more about Elizabeth’s novels at www.elizabethmusser.com and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and her blog.