Testament
A Novel
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1.0 • 1 Rating
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
A fictional biography of the earthly life of Jesus told from the perspectives of four fascinating figures, by the author of Where She Has Gone.
In powerful accounts colored by their own beliefs and devices, the following men and women tell the captivating story:
Yihuda of Qiryat (Judas Iscariot), a freedom fighter working for Rome’s overthrow who is drawn to the charismatic teacher; Miryam of Migdal (Mary Magdeline), a disciple who finds in Jesus’ presence the intellectual stimulation that society has denied her. Miryam (Mary), the mother of Jeus, who has a complex relationship with her precocious son, and Simon of Gergesa, a plainspoken shepherd who travels to Jerusalem and witnesses the last days of the Jewish preacher.
With exquisite detail, Nino Ricci offers a provocative portrait of the historical Jesus, an ordinary man living in a time of political turmoil and spiritual uncertainty.
Praise for Testament
“A hypnotic, deeply lyrical presentation of four gospels . . . . A writer of impeccable craft . . . recreating, in his incantatory prose, the very aroma and the wild, sorcery-filled world through which Jesus walked.” —Pico Iyer, Los Angeles Times Book Review
“A fantastic storyteller . . . an unsettling book . . . The four narrators Ricci creates are exceptionally well drawn and brilliantly infused with the details of their time.” —Ron Charles, Christian Science Monitor
“The portrait of a difficult, alienated, but compassionate and charismatic intellectual and religious rebel . . . The character that emerges is complex, compelling, and achingly heroic.” —Christine Wald-Hopkins, Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gently stripping the life of Jesus bare of its mythical trappings, Ricci (The Book of Saints, etc.) presents a lyrical, searching version of the biblical tale, grounding his work in the historical realities of the time and telling Jesus' story from four different perspectives. Two of the novel's narrators, Judas and Jesus' mother, Mary, eschew supernatural explanations of Jesus' ministry and describe him as an eccentric, depressive genius. The other two narrators, Mary Magdalene and a shepherd named Simon of Gergesa, witness moments in Jesus' ministry that they believe to be otherworldly. Set against each other, these four accounts reveal the ways in which ordinary acts come to seem miraculous, through repetition and suggestion. The biblical interpretation of key events is re-examined, too. In Ricci's novel, the pretext for Jesus' arrest and eventual crucifixion is not his betrayal by Judas, but his association with him, since Judas is part of an insurrectionist group. And when Jesus' body disappears from the tomb, Simon of Gergesa assumes this has to do with the practice of paying Roman guards to look the other way while family members claim crucified bodies. At a deeper level, Ricci seeks to present Jesus as a man whose powers spring simply from great compassion and the ability to see beyond appearances. Ricci's lucid, thoughtful storytelling and his ability to shed fresh light on an oft-told tale makes this a valuable entry in the annals of fiction inspired by the Gospels, from Renan's Life of Jesus to Jim Crace's Quarantine.
