“An extraordinary novel . . . a triumph of insight and storytelling.” —Associated Press“A true masterpiece.” —Glennon Doyle, author of Untamed An extraordinary story set in the first century about a woman who finds her voice and her destiny, from the celebrated number one New York Times bestselling author of The Secret Life of Bees and The Invention of WingsIn her mesmerizing fourth work of … Bees and The Invention of Wings
In her mesmerizing fourth work of fiction, Sue Monk Kidd takes an audacious approach to history and brings her acclaimed narrative gifts to imagine the story of a young woman named Ana. Raised in a wealthy family with ties to the ruler of Galilee, she is rebellious and ambitious, with a brilliant mind and a daring spirit. She engages in furtive scholarly pursuits and writes narratives about neglected and silenced women. Ana is expected to marry an older widower, a prospect that horrifies her. An encounter with eighteen-year-old Jesus changes everything.
Their marriage evolves with love and conflict, humor and pathos in Nazareth, where Ana makes a home with Jesus, his brothers, and their mother, Mary. Ana’s pent-up longings intensify amid the turbulent resistance to Rome’s occupation of Israel, partially led by her brother, Judas. She is sustained by her fearless aunt Yaltha, who harbors a compelling secret. When Ana commits a brazen act that puts her in peril, she flees to Alexandria, where startling revelations and greater dangers unfold, and she finds refuge in unexpected surroundings. Ana determines her fate during a stunning convergence of events considered among the most impactful in human history.
Grounded in meticulous research and written with a reverential approach to Jesus’s life that focuses on his humanity, The Book of Longings is an inspiring, unforgettable account of one woman’s bold struggle to realize the passion and potential inside her, while living in a time, place and culture devised to silence her. It is a triumph of storytelling both timely and timeless, from a masterful writer at the height of her powers.
more
Warning: The premise of THE BOOK OF LONGINGS is that Jesus had a wife. No spoiler, as this is prominent in promotional material, and rightly so. Some readers may find it troubling. If you are one, please skip this book.
If you’re still with me, know that I was drawn to The Book of Longings first by the author’s name. I enjoyed two earlier books of hers, The Secret Life of Bees and The Invention of Wings. And I do love this one. I’ve always appreciated historical fiction that goes back so far and reimagines something we’ve heard many times before.
This novel is told from the POV of Ana, said savior’s fictitious wife, and she is a remarkable woman. Captivated by her quickness, her father educates her and teaches her to write. He has no clue about either the hunger or the drive he hs unleashed in her.
Ana is a thinker. She is a feminist, a rebel, a strong woman at a time when women were considered to be one step above the family goat. Ana is desperate to have a voice and be heard. This is her greatest longing. She envisions her writing as her vehicle in this. It is a daunting battle against the norm of the time.
Regarding Jesus, the author knew that she, too, was battling the norm. In a fascinating “Author’s Note” (which I heard in her own voice via the audiobook), she explains her thinking and describes the research she did to slip Ana into the facts of the time as plausibly as possibly.
And she does know what she’s talking about. Sue Monk Kidd is a devout scholar. Her imaginings are presented with the utmost respect.
Her goal is to humanize Jesus. For me, she succeeds. How else to explain the tears in my eyes at the inevitable end?
I loved the descriptions, the characters, and the prose. This is a fabulous book.
In a daring feat of imagination, Sue Monk Kidd bravely chronicles the life of Ana, wife of Jesus of Nazareth. Thoroughly researched, The Book of Longings shines a light on a possibility, what if Jesus married? Stunning, but plausible considering the mores and religious imperatives of the time. But this book is not about Jesus, although he is vividly portrayed and lives and breathes within the beautifully wrought confines of the book. This is Ana’s story.
Ana is a storyteller, a scribe from a wealthy aristocratic family. Her father is the head scribe for Herod Antipas, the tetrarch who ruled the Galilee during Jesus’ lifetime. Women traditionally were not educated and certainly not scribes. This is the story of Ana becoming whom she was meant to be. We weep as she tries to find her voice and her place within an unloving family. Her value to them more that of an object to be bartered in marriage. We applaud her struggles against her parents and her beloved adopted brother Judas. We pray she can hold steady against being forced into a loveless marriage, and once again, when she struggles against becoming a courtesan to Antipas. We fear what may become of her when Ana is forced to flee into exile to Alexandria, Egypt, where she fights against a tyrannical uncle. In a final struggle, we weep when she returns to save her beloved husband, Jesus, and of course, what follows.
But it is the friendships that color the book in a glorious tint. Throughout the book, Ana, whose voice cannot be suppressed, writes about the Biblical matriarchs and about the injustices and ordeals faced by women of her time. She is lucky to attract within her life an array of strong women who inspire her. Each of these women is beautifully developed within the story. It is their inspiration, which leads her to write their stories.
This book deserves your consideration, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
I avoided this book for a long while due to the subject matter. But after hearing friends talk about it, I decided I had to read it. I’m so glad I did. I loved Ana and I could easily empathize with her frustrations of being a woman in a time when women didn’t matter much. Sue Monk Kidd’s portrayal of Jesus was spot on. This is a very inspiring book.
I kept having to close this novel and breathe deeply, again and again. A radical rexadimagining of the New Testament that reflects on women’s longing and silencing and awakening, it is a true masterpiece.
I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees is one of my favorite books of all time, so I was excited to read her take on a woman in the midst of an era where women had no voice or agency. I’m not religious, so I didn’t mind the speculation that Jesus had a wife and enjoyed the humanizing of such a critical historical figure (though I could have done without the insta-love), and there were parts of Ana’s story that were lovely, including the relationships she built with other strong-voiced women and her time in the commune of Jewish philosophers and scholars.
That said, something about this story just fell flat for me, and I couldn’t really identify it until I read the Author’s Note at the end of the book. Kidd talks about how, if Jesus really did have a wife, then she would have been the most silenced woman of all time and she deserved a voice. That was such a powerful statement, and I realized that this was the book I wanted to read. Kidd told Ana’s story in such a way that Jesus is often off the page – in fact, you see very little of him throughout the book – which could have lent the space for Ana to have a significant, independently earned place in history that is later unfairly swept away. Instead, we see early on Ana’s desperate need to write and have a voice, but that quickly gets lost as we spend the majority of the book with her not really doing much, time slipping by without much measure, as her husband goes off to change the world and she stays inside, every now and then dealing with politics or familial drama, but mostly just playing an accessory to the already known events tracked through scripture. There wasn’t much inspiring about Ana’s story, and I wanted more than just longing from her.
This is an interesting read overall and a great book club choice – I can already tell it will incite a great discussion amongst our group!
What a fascinating premise for a book: Jesus was a married man! Sue Monk Kidd does not disappoint in her tale of Ana, Jesus’ wife. For any committed Christian who might be uncomfortable w/ the concept of a married Jesus, Kidd deftly navigates the gospel stories without compromising them, or adding characters that aren’t specifically mentioned in the gospels.
Ana is a relatively-wealthy girl, whose father works for Herod Antipas. She is a lovely, but not meek, girl. She truly loves her aunt Yaltha and her brother, Judas, who has an origin story quite unlike hers, which has turned him into an anti-Roman-rule zealot. Ana’s father indulges her wish for knowledge, bringing her papyri so she can write w/ the inks she and Yaltha create. She doesn’t want to be a typical girl of the time — in her words, “voiceless.” Yaltha gives her an incantation bowl and tells her to inscribe her deepest longing upon the bowl and sing the prayer she inscribes so that God will hear her.
Ana is unwilling to marry the elderly man picked for her, and refuses to become one of Antipas’ concubines. She needs to hide from Antipas — so marries a young man from a different town, Jesus. Her privileged life has not prepared her to live as a peasant wife, and she struggles to learn the skills necessary to help keep the family alive. As she learns from her mother- and sisters-in-law, Jesus is growing more aware that his purpose in life may be greater than being a jack-of-all-trades eking out a living for his family. He really talks of God as though He is Jesus’ father, not just a God who possibly hears prayers, confusing to Ana, who is not sure God hears her prayers at all, as she never has time to write and no one else cares but Jesus.
Jesus and Ana hear of a strange prophet preaching in the wilderness – John the Immerser. They both travel to hear John and believe he might be the Messiah, who will rescue the oppressed Jews from Roman rule and their own Church leaders in collusion w the Romans. I love how Kidd describes their baptism, and the Dove flying over when Jesus arises from his watery grave! I also love the details of Jesus’ and Ana’s trip to Jerusalem to make the yearly animal sacrifice for the family back in Nazareth. Kidd does a masterful job with the uproar Jesus – and Ana – create.
But Kidd’s novelist chops really come to the fore w/ how she removes Ana from the scene of Jesus’ itinerant-preacher years. It involves danger from Antipas, and Ana and Yaltha fleeing Galilee altogether. Ana returns in time for the climactic end of Jesus’ life. I cried so much!
But — does Ana remain “voiceless” for all time? Because this is Ana’s story, not Jesus’. I really love how the story wraps up, but you’re going to have to read this great novel for yourself to see. “The Book of Longings” is another excellent novel from Sue Monk Kidd, and I’m glad I finally got around to reading it.
I reviewed for New York Journal of Books. See my review on my website: https://www.caitlinhicks.com/wordpress/the-book-of-longings/
I will admit I was a little – maybe a lot – afraid to delve into this book. But I am so glad I did! I applaud Sue Monk Kidd for taking on this topic. There are so many ways this could have gone. I should have trusted her. After all, her books have not disappointed me yet. She did a great job avoiding the theology of the topic and focusing on the historical facts while adding her own “what ifs”. It is very thought provoking and it has stayed with me for a long time!
I thoroughly enjoyed the author’s fictional religious version providing a woman’s voice and perspective during a time when women were culturally and socially subjugated pawns.
The author used historical characters and detailed locations to infuse believability in the storylines of religious history.
The author’s use of historical words and phrases was precise and detailed, allowing the reader to discover historical events to reveal the historical importance of women.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to read this book. I had misgivings about its content, and intent. It is a retelling of what we know from the Bible about Jesus–a fictional “what if” that inserts the fictional character Ana as the wife of Jesus. My hesitation in reading it was concern for blasphemy. I wondered if I would be reading a sacrilegious reinterpretation of the New Testament. I finally decided to give the author Sue Monk Kidd the respect she has earned from previous books, and I am glad I did.
Mixed in with the fictional account of Ana is extensive research, enough to maybe even say this is historical fiction. I was not offended reading this “What if Jesus was married?” tale. It’s a beautiful love story that reminded me Jesus was fully human, in addition to being fully divine. The book did nothing to sway my firm belief in His word, as it is written.
In a conversation with the author, Sue Monk Kidd summarizes her bold approach to history by saying, “Over the years, I’ve found that people read a book through the lens of their own experience and need. They will find their own takeaways. I trust them to do that.” I think you should read this book. Your takeaway may be different from mine, but I still love Jesus deeply and will continue to study scripture. The Book of Longings has simply given me something to think about, whether I believe it or not.
Being raised in Christianity, I’m familiar with the Bible stories and was able to appreciate how well they are placed within this novel.
More importantly, this book is emotionally moving. I might even say emotionally staggering. Not many books have moved me to tears, but this one did more than once. I related so strongly to Ana that I’ve been in a stupor for days, exploring my own inner longings and how to make my own life mine.
I would recommend this to anyone whose heart aches for their ancestors who were silenced by men, stifled by marriage and motherhood and chores, grounded in a place where they had no control and longing for more.
Well-researched and engrossing story about a young first century Jewish woman searching for a way to be heard and reckoned with. Follett-esque in its epic storytelling, but much less sprawling. Despite obvious and sometimes overhanded themes, the story was gripping and superbly paced. Overall, an imaginative and memorable tale.
Thought provoking novel….also gives great insight into living as a woman in the time of Jesus.
This book was a controversial book for Sue Monk Kidd, but I have to give her kudos for tackling the subject matter with great tact. The book really is about Ana. A woman in the BCE time period, she is not allowed to go to school or own property, much less learn to read, or write. Ana loves reading and writing which her father teaches her. But life deals her a tough blow until she meets a gentle man who looks beyond the story others believe about her. This man is Jesus, who like Ana, does not follow the norms of society. Ana’s “longing” to write the stories of women of importance ebbs and wanes throughout her life but remains a constant. The question lies in whether she is able to follow that longing.
A very outside of the box book. I’ve always thought Jesus may have been married and loved this fictional story that portrayed this.
As a Christian, it is often with trepidation that I read a work of fiction that is written about people and places in the Bible, but I am glad I read this one. The people in the story are just a little bit more relatable after having read this work. Thank you SMK for putting this book out there.
I loved this book. I haven’t found a book in a while that kept my interest and I couldn’t wait get back to it.
Ana is a young woman engaged to be married to an older widower. She is horrified at the prospect. She wants to be a scholar. However, this is not an option for her. She meets Jesus one day and is captivated by his charm and kindness. This changes her stars but it is a process with some damage along the way.
There is so much encompassed in this novel. What captured my attention more than most was Ana’s plight. The struggle women went through just to survive and not be considered cattle.
Talk about a fabulous historical fiction tale! Sometimes authors try too hard when it comes to the subject of Jesus. Most authors try to make it about religion and beliefs. Not this author! She captured the love of Jesus. She also nailed the time period and the landscape as well. I felt like I was right there in the story!
Since I was behind in my reviews, I decided to get this with one of my audible credits. The narrator, Mozhan Marno is fantastic. The perfect inflection and right amount of attitude when needed!
Need a good story which will take you away….THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today!
Might be challenging for some but I found it to be a very interesting portrayal of the family life of Jesus.
Loved it. I have not read a book by Sue Monk Kidd that I did not like. She is on my best writers list.