May 18, 20232 min read

Pre-order the Short Story Collection "Life and Death in Ephesus" today!

Book Blurb:

I shall reveal the true story of the destruction of the temple of Artemis...

For over a thousand years, Ephesus, on the Aegean coast of what is now modern Turkey, was a thriving city. It was the site of the Temple of Artemis, one of the Wonders of the Ancient World, and a destination for religious pilgrimage long before the advent of Christianity. In the first century CE, St. John and St. Paul introduced Christianity to Ephesus, where it survived its turbulent beginnings and hosted, in 431 CE, the God-defining Council of Ephesus.

Life and Death in Ephesus is a collection of stories about major events in the history of the ancient city. Characters appearing in these stories include Herostratus, first to commit a "herostratic crime"; Alexander, the warrior king; Lysimachus, his lieutenant and later his successor; Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, both conquerors of Cleopatra; Heraclitus, the philosopher who said, "You can't put your foot in the same river twice"; St. Paul, persona non grata in Ephesus; Nestorius, whose characterization of Jesus split the Eastern and Western church, and others.

"Life and Death in Ephesus" will be a delightful and enjoyable accompaniment to the many available guidebooks. Not just tourists, but anyone interested in history will benefit from reading them." - Hilke Thur, Austrian Academy of Sciences

Author Bio:

Finlay McQuade is a retired educator. He has a BA from Pomona College, where he received the John Dye award for writing, and an MA in British and American literature from Harvard. He began his career as a high school English teacher, and after earning a PhD in education from the University of Pittsburgh, he worked as a consultant to schools and school improvement projects, mostly in the USA, but sometimes in schools abroad. He co- authored How to Make a Better School and was frequently commissioned to write instructional manuals about teaching and learning for The College Board and The Modern Red Schoolhouse Institute. His articles have appeared in English Journal, Independent School, and Science and Children. He ended his career in education when he retired from Bogazici University in Istanbul.

For eight years after retirement, he lived among the ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus. Its streets and squares and monuments became his neighborhood. His companions included archeologists, tour guides, and souvenir sellers. His curiosity about the people who had occupied those empty buildings in their heyday resulted in Life and Death in Ephesus, a collection of stories chronicling major events in the city’s history. Now, back in the USA, with time on his hands, the finds himself returning again and again to his Huckleberry boyhood on the coast of Ireland. The result of this time travel will be another collection of stories, part fiction, part memoir.