John the Baptizer

Traditionally, John the Baptist is seen as little more than an opening act, the voice crying in the wilderness in the great Christian drama. In presenting the epic of John's life, novelist Brooks Hansen draws on an extraordinary array of inspirations, from the works of Caravaggio, Bach, and Oscar Wilde to the histories of Josephus, the canonical gospels, the Gnostic gospels, and the sacred texts of those followers of John who never accepted Jesus as Messiah: the Mandeans. Gripping as literary historical fiction, and fascinating as a diligent exploration of ancient and modern sources, this book brings to eye-opening life the richly textured world populated by the magnificently sordid, calculating, and reckless Herods, their families, and their courts into which both John and Jesus were born. John the Baptizer is a captivating tapestry of power and dissent, ambition and self-sacrifice, worldly and otherworldly desire, faith, and doubt.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 06/01/2009
ISBN: 9780393069471
Pages: 391
Weight: 1.34lbs
Size: 9.60h x 6.50w x 1.50d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 04/06/2009 pg. 31
Kirkus Reviews 05/01/2009
Booklist 04/15/2009 pg. 33