I started reading Journey to the Well with not very much hope. I was pleasantly surprised, however. The famous passage where Jesus meets the woman at the well is right at the end and I found a new perspective from reading this book. Biblical times are brought to life in intricate detail. Diana Wallis Taylor tells her tale with warmth and sensitivity. I found it deeply moving.

Could this really be the story of the Samarian woman at Jacob’s well who Jesus meets and speaks with? I would like to think so. Diana Wallis Taylor has woven a very plausible story of the life of this woman, who she calls Marah, leading up to that momentous meeting. Starting with Marah’s life as a child who has lot both parents, an un-caring Aunt, who marries her off to an unpleasant husband, and goes back to her own people, then when this husband falls ill and dies, custom decrees that she marry her brother in law, but he only likes men and does the kindly thing of giving her a divorce and disappearing. She marries again, her childhood sweetheart and that should mean a happy ending but of course it does not. Jesus said to her ‘you have had five husbands....and this man you have now is not your husband,’ Diana Wallis Taylor’s story goes on to tell how this can be. Real insight into life for a woman in that time and place; many different threads of story all leading to that meeting with Jesus and the joyful time to follow.