Discovering the City of Sodom

It’s finally here, friends. The book I researched on the shores of the Dead Sea. The book I wrote on a lap desk in the passenger seat of my car in hospital parking lots for four months while my husband lay comatose and paralyzed, in his own Dead Sea.

The book of archaeology and excavations and heartbreaking dead ends and nerve-jangling discoveries. The chronicle of dislimbed bones and pottery heat-blasted into trinitite glass. The book of a lost city that wouldn’t stay lost.

It’s here, and it’s stirring up trouble.

Discovering the City of Sodom: The Fascinating, True Account of the Old Testament's Most Infamous City (Howard/Simon & Schuster) describes how, why and where God detonated a literal firebomb over a targeted spot in a valley in the Middle East early in human history. It is about dirt, but not just any dirt:  Dirt honed in on, like GoogleEarth zooming in from outer space. Or, more accurately said, from Infinite Space.

My co-author, Dr. Steven Collins, did something that many other professional archaeologists scoffed at. He used the Bible to track down a major archaeological find: what is now the largest official dig in the entire Jordan Valley of Israel and Jordan. Off limits to excavators for decades because of the regional wars and now a joint project with the government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the hulking mound of Tall el Hammam is a massive site with hundred-foot-thick battlements, fertile with finds.

I was privileged to give its history a voice.

I’d like you to share in my excitement. I want you to have a copy of this book. I’ll randomly choose two of you who tell me why you'd want to read this book.