The Gilded Chamber

Feb 23, 2026 8:05 PM

Author:Rebecca Kohn

The Gilded Chamber

One girl, one nation, one chance . . .

Esther's story is one of the most dramatic in the Bible: a renowned beauty, she used her feminine wiles to capture the heart of a king and so win the deliverance of her people from the threat of death. The Gilded Chamber creatively re-works the famous story to show us how this young girl came to be in the harem of King Xerxes and how her path to womanhood enabled her to save a nation and find peace.

This is a tale of strength, seduction and survival, of the solidarity of women, and its descriptions of the Persian palace and the secrets contained within those walls will hold you spellbound to the final page.

Reviews

Fans will love it

—— Heat

Engaging and smartly plotted

—— Observer

It's warm-hearted characterisation and deft pacing should make the paperback popular on next summer's beaches

—— The Sunday Times

Past Mortem confirms Elton as craftsmanlike, thoughtful and readable. Fans will find plenty to enjoy

—— Daily Mail

A writer who provokes almost as much as he entertains

—— Daily Mail

A transcendentally harmonious and compassionate work

—— Times Literary Supplement

A surprisingly tender book... Amid the terror a classic story about love sneaks through: love lost, love imagined, love morphed into madness

—— New York Times Book Review

Beautifully written... It puts a human face on the suffering inflicted by the Taliban... Disturbing and mesmerizing, The Swallows of Kabul will stay with you long after you've finished it

—— San Francisco Chronicle

Riveting... Spare, taut, and pristinely clear prose... An uncanny knack for making moral tension palpable... Extraordinarily moving

—— Philadelphia Inquirer

A novel very much in the tradition of Albert Camus, not only in its humanism and concern with the consequences of individual choices but also in its determination to bear witness to the absurdities of daily life... [A] chilling portrait of fundamentalism run amok and its fallout on ordinary people

—— New York Times

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