"I am Ana. I am the wife of Jesus ben Joseph of Nazareth. I called him Beloved and he, laughing, called me Little Thunder. He said he heard rumblings inside me while I slept ............ That my husband bent his heart to mine on our thin straw mat and listened was the kindness I most loved in him. What he heard was my life begging to be born."
Ana is a rebellious young woman, a gifted writer with a curious, brilliant mind, who writes secret narratives about the neglected and silenced women around her. Raised in a wealthy family in Galilee, she is sheltered from the brutality of Rome's occupation of Israel. Ana is expected to marry an elderly widower to further her father's ambitions, a prospect that horrifies her. A chance encounter with the eighteen-year-old Jesus changes everything: his ideas and his passion are intoxicating.
Taking Ana on a journey she could never have imagined, The Book of Longings is a glorious evocation of a time and a place where astounding events unfolded, and of one woman's fate when she fights to make her voice heard.
***
This is a work of fiction and in my review I will not be commenting on it's accuracy to either the Christian Bible or the Jewish Torah. The author presents Jesus in an historical light as opposed to a religious one, other than within the Jewish community in which he lived.
This book is about Ana, his fictional wife, rather than about Jesus himself. Jesus is portrayed only in as much as he impacted her life and is not the main character. She is fourteen at the beginning of the book and unlike most girls of the period is literate. In many ways that is the main theme of the story. The author gives a voice to women of the time who have been silenced through history. As interesting as that is, I could not help but feel that Ana was a 21st century woman transplanted into history and with a modern feminist attitude.
That said, I loved reading about how strong these women were. At a time when nothing more than marriage, and that of their fathers choice, would have been expected for them. Ana in particular, has quite other ideas. She is headstrong, resolute and determined to live life through her own choices. She makes for a compelling character.
The meticulous research needed for this book has clearly been well done and has resulted in a book which is carefully told. The chapter in which the crucifixion is described has been movingly portrayed not only by the way the author describes the brutality of such an execution, but she brought alive how it must have felt to stand at the foot of that cross watching their husband, son, friend die in such an horrific manner.
The book is rich in atmosphere and imaginatively written. She evokes the sights, sounds and smells of the period which made for a captivating and compelling read.
I have read Ms Kidd's novels The Secret Life of Bees and The Invention of Wings, (you can read my review here) both of which were equally well written. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction.
ISBN: 978 1472232496
Publisher: Tinder Press
About the Author:
Sue Monk Kidd was raised in Georgia. She graduated from Texas Christian University in 1970 and later took creative writing courses at Emory University, as well as studying at Sewanee, Bread Loaf, and other writers’ conferences. In her forties, Kidd turned her attention to writing fiction, winning the South Carolina Fellowship in Literature and the 1996 Poets & Writers Exchange Program in Fiction.
When her first novel, The Secret Life of Bees, was published by Viking in 2002, it became a genuine literary phenomenon, spending more than 2½ years on the New York Timesbestseller list. It has been translated into 36 languages and sold more than 6 million copies in the U.S. and 8 million copies worldwide. Bees was named the Book Sense Paperback Book of the Year in 2004, long-listed for the 2002 Orange Prize in England, and won numerous awards.
In her forties, Kidd turned her attention to writing fiction, winning the South Carolina Fellowship in Literature and the 1996 Poets & Writers Exchange Program in Fiction. Her short stories appeared in TriQuarterly, Nimrod, and other literary journals and received a Katherine Anne Porter award and citations in Best American Short Stories’ 100 Distinguished Stories.
When her first novel, The Secret Life of Bees, was published by Viking in 2002, it became a genuine literary phenomenon, spending more than 2½ years on the New York Times bestseller list. It has been translated into 36 languages and sold more than 8 million copies worldwide and was named the Book Sense Paperback Book of the Year in 2004, long-listed for the 2002 Orange Prize in England, and won numerous awards. For over a decade, the novel was produced on stage by The American Place Theater, and in 2008 it was adapted into a movie by Fox Searchlight, which won the People’s Choice award for best movie and the NAACP Image award for best picture. The 2019 off-broadway production at The Atlantic Theater won the AUDELCO VIV award for best musical. The novel is taught widely in middle school, high school, and college classrooms.
Kidd serves on the Writers Council for Poets & Writers, Inc. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, Sandy, and dog, Barney.
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