A Deeper Well
The Story of the Woman at the Well
A story of personal redemption, Jill Eileen Smith’s novel A Deeper Well is about a brokenhearted Samaritan woman.
When she is thirteen, Nessa, who wanted to marry her cousin Lavi, is instead betrothed to an older, wealthy potter. After being widowed, she remarries; this and three subsequent marriages fail. All the while, Lavi yearns to win her back.
The book skips through time to highlight moments from each of Nessa’s marriages, including negotiated bride prices, contracts, and wedding feasts. Scenes of everyday domesticity are also breezed through, with a focus on cooking, garment weaving, and going to market—activities that afford Nessa some reprieve.
Still, throughout the book, Nessa depends on men, having limited personal options outside of marriage. Her pain deepens as she goes from household to household in Sychar, a village with defined spaces for women’s work. Women envy her because she is beautiful, and her hardhearted in-laws blame her when she has difficulty becoming a mother. She fears being censured over her multiple divorces.
Nessa’s husbands are developed in terms of their initial amicability and eventual cruelty, while Lavi’s attempts to reconnect with Nessa are complicated by his lies. Better fleshed out are a kind servant and Nessa’s supportive mother.
Nessa is vulnerable because of her repeated losses, and the relief she feels once she encounters Jesus is foreseeable but heartfelt. Though she disbelieves that God hears her prayers, Jesus is gentle in teaching her otherwise. She goes from feeling cast off to having a renewed sense of self-worth. The novel moves toward an ending in which she and others seek to make up for their mistakes.
In the uplifting novel A Deeper Well, a woman encounters Jesus and finds peace through repentance and forgiveness.
Reviewed by
Karen Rigby
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
