The Liars' Gospel by Naomi AldermanMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I would like to thank Little, Brown, and Company as well as NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.
The Liars' Gospel is a retelling of the story of Yehoshuah (Jesus) through four characters: Miryam (Mary), Iehuda of Qeriot (Judas Iscariot), Caiaphas, and Bar-Avo (Barabbas). Naomi Alderman places her story in the first century - a time of Roman occupation and Jewish rebellion. We see, from several perspectives, the harsh reality of life under Rome in the slide towards the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. Each person remembers Yehoshuah, some with intimacy and pain, others as an irritation, a fragment of memory. This produces a strange portrait of Yehoshuah, like a shadow viewed through carnival glass. He is there, but fragmented, never really clear and far from whole.
This is less of a story about Jesus, the Man, and more an exploration of Jesus the Mystery. In some ways it is more about the evolution of belief, rather than an exploration of character or truth. The Liar's Gospel provides a tale of how stories are written, of how and why untruths form, particularly in the search for truth itself.
Don't read this if you are looking for answers to a divine mystery. Read it if you want to search your own soul for answers to questions of mortality and how we strive for something more.
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