As a book, it is an exceptional retelling of the Biblical story of the Exodus. I'm certain most modern readers will be familiar with the original story. By selecting an unlikely viewpoint characterùthe scribe AnaùHaggard provides a down-to-earth narrator for a story of fantastic proportion. The novel was first serialized in The Cornhill Magazine from January through October in 1918 and released in book form in October 1918. Author and critic Jessica Amanda Salmonson has called MOON OF ISR'L "a beautifully written Jewish legend," and adds, "Haggard was pro-Zionist advocating a Jewish homeland in Palestine as early as 1915."