The Gospel of Judas: A Novel [Paperback]

Simon Mawer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 8, 2002

A priest experiencing a crisis of faith -- and the married woman to whom he is attracted. A scroll newly discovered near Jerusalem that, if authentic, could open Christianity to a complete reinterpretation. A tragic love affair unfolding in Fascist-dominated Rome during World War II. These are the elements of a magnificent literary entertainment -- a novel that resonates with tales of love and betrayal as it deals profoundly with questions of faith and what it means to believe.
-- At once a love story, a thriller, and a rich novel of ideas.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In Simon Mawer's remarkably poised and poignant novel, the small moment is as significant as the large, and "the detail dictat[es] to the whole." Biblical scholar Father Leo Newman has spent a lifetime deciphering meaning from evanescent fragments of papyrus; he is much less accustomed to descrying the metamorphosis of a relationship writ large ("a mysterious thing, much too mysterious for a simple naming"). How unlikely, then, that he should fall in love with Madeleine Brewer, the vibrant but unbalanced wife of a bureaucrat. How unlikely, too, that he should be confronted with an ancient scroll whose details are radically incendiary rather than dustily abstruse: an apparent account of Jesus' life from Judas's point of view. But how marvelously likely that Mawer should take these elements and create a haunting narrative of doubt and faith, "the thin wash of immediacy" and memory, passion and the fragile remains of its absence. Madeleine and the Judas scroll thrust themselves, uninvited and unexpected, into Leo's quiet life in Rome, their very presence a counterpoint to his isolation and vulnerability. Asked by Madeleine to compromise a lifetime, asked by his colleagues to verify or deny the scroll's authenticity, Leo is a profoundly Prufrockian figure, "No Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be." Does he dare disturb the universe?

Mawer skillfully interleaves three narratives: the story of Leo's German mother's life in Rome during World War II, a woman who was herself forced to choose between principle and passion; the unsettling story of Leo's relationship with Madeleine and the scroll; and a circumspect "present," in which Leo is still "a hermit in a cave, a hermit who was hoarding the few fragments of his faith lest they too be swept away by circumstance."

The novel represents a solemn quest, striving back toward half-forgotten origins in an attempt to bring order to a present and future spinning out of control. Its most poignant irony is that Leo is at once creator and destroyer--as he pieces together the story of the scroll, he is simultaneously unraveling his own faith, his own raison d'être:

A dun-colored fibrous fragment hung there behind the glass, a fragment of papyrus the color of biscuit, inscribed with the most perfect letters ever man devised, words wrought in the lean and ragged language of the eastern Mediterranean, the workaday language of the streets, the meaning half apprehended, half grasped, half heard through the noise of all that lies between us and them, the shouting, roaring centuries of darkness and enlightenment. How was it possible to communicate to her the pure, organic thrill?

The thrill, thanks to Mawer, is ours. --Kelly Flynn --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

A crisis of faith is at the heart of this fascinating, thoughtful literary thriller revolving around the discovery of a manuscript written by the historical Judas. Father Leo Newman, close to middle age, is a scholar living in Rome, teaching English to make ends meet, when he is sent fragments of some first-century A.D. scrolls to decipher. The text seems to be the earliest version so far of the New Testament, the first eyewitness accounts of Jesus's life to be discovered. But Newman is distracted from his studies by his growing attachment to a married woman, Madeleine Brewer, and by mounting doubts about his vocation. A family tragedy in the distant past haunts him, too, and flashbacks to his mother's experiences in Rome during WWII alternate with the present-day narrative. Summoned suddenly to Jerusalem when a particularly exciting papyrus is unearthed, Newman finds himself confronted with what seems to be a text written by Judas, denying that Christ rose from the dead. It's only when this Gospel of Judas makes its first appearance, like a metaphor come alive, that the whole idea of what it means to be a Judas becomes the subject of the book. It's a hook that Mawer (Mendel's Dwarf, etc.) uses to stunning effect. What Newman, already shaken by the end of his affair with Madeline Brewer, does to that ancient manuscript is the ultimate betrayal in the novel, but as in so many modern interpretations of the crime of Judas, the betrayal is really the outward evidence of an affirmation of faith. Discerning readers will relish Mawer's excellent writing and subtle treatment of potentially over-the-top subject matter. National advertising; 5-city author tour.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books (May 8, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316973742
• ISBN-13: 978-0316973748
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,034,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Simon Mawer was born in 1948 in England, and spent his childhood there, in Cyprus and in Malta. Educated at Millfield School in Somerset and at Brasenose College, Oxford, he took a degree in biology and worked as a biology teacher for many years. His first novel, Chimera, was published by Hamish Hamilton in 1989, winning the McKitterick Prize for first novels. Mendel's Dwarf (1997), his first book to be publish in the US, reached the last ten of the Booker Prize and was a New York Time "Book to Remember" for 1998. The Gospel of Judas, The Fall (winner of the 2003 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature) and Swimming to Ithaca followed. In 2009 The Glass Room, his tenth book and eighth novel was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

Mawer is married and has two children. He has lived in Italy for the past thirty years.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quite simply, an astounding novel!, February 20, 2003

By 

David M. Gordon (Summerlin, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Gospel of Judas: A Novel (Paperback)

Life is what we make of it, and (Father) Leo Newman (the story's protagonist) has made a botch of his. And just as his religious faith begins to fall prey to his mounting doubts, Madeleine Brewer ("Maddy" - Mawer's choice of character names is subtly clever) enters the scene, and away they go; displacing thought for action, the cerebral for the physical. Mawer conflates this love triangle - Maddy is married to a British diplomat; Leo is married to his faith and religion - with the discovery of another gospel, this one by Judas Iscariot. What Leo, as translator of the parchment, learns about Jesus Christ and the birth of Christianity causes him to view the religious and the secular in a different light...

This book's marketing can create some confusion: is it a dialectic about faith, a thriller, a love story? It is each of these, and more. Simon Mawer has managed - artfully, gracefully - to ensnare the reader into entertaining even enjoying the questions (and some answers) that transcend our individual lives.

*The Gospel of Judas* is, quite simply, an astounding novel - perhaps the best novel I have read in several years! Admittedly, it does include ALL of the topics and issues that *I* find so thrilling: faith, religion, history, and language. Mawer's love of language mimics his love for the quotidian, and allows him to tell a tale for all.

But don't take my word for it, on faith; check it out for yourself. You must see, smell, feel, and read this novel, to believe it. Highest recommendation.

30 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Leaves the reader thinking, May 18, 2001

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Gospel of Judas : A Novel (Hardcover)

Near the Dead Sea, a new scroll from the time of Jesus has been discovered. The church sends Rome teacher-scholar Father Leo Newman to investigate and translate the newest find. Leo is going through a difficult period as he has doubts about his chosen avocation ever since he met and sinned by having an affair with Madeline Brewer. Still, Leo immediately travels to Jerusalem to join an international team inspecting the rich find, but his assignment is to concentrate on one particular papyrus.

Leo quickly realizes that the document the Church sent him to inspect apparently contains the Gospel accordance to Judas Iscariot. Instead of supporting the other Gospels, this scroll denies much of what has been claimed. Leo begins to comprehend how Judas felt when he condemned his best friend to death.

THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS is an insightful look at the Judas betrayal but in a modern text and through Leo's break in faith. The story line is fast-paced especially in an allegorical manner that compares Leo to Judas. The flashbacks to World War II are cleverly written, but the story belongs to the Leo-Judas relationship that, in turn, proves how talented Simon Mawer truly is.

Harriet Klausner

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Beautifully Written Novel Of Doubt & Betrayal!, November 14, 2003

By 

Jana L. Perskie "ceruleana" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gospel of Judas: A Novel (Paperback)

"The Gospel of Judas" is a novel containing three skillfully woven storylines, all sharing the theme of betrayal. The events are recounted in flashbacks to a time a few years before the present, and to a period during WWII in Italy. Underlying the entire narrative is the theme of Judas Iscariot. When I hear the name Judas, I immediately associate it with the word "betrayal." Some of the questions this novel poses are, who was Judas? Did he betray? Has religious history given Judas a bad rap?

Father Leo Newman, a Roman Catholic priest, is a biblical scholar working in Rome for the World Bible Center. He is an expert at deciphering, translating and interpreting the bits and pieces of ancient papyrus discovered in Near Eastern archeological sites that deal with biblical history, especially those pertaining to New Testament writings. Newman is lonely, middle-aged, and somewhat ascetic. When the novel opens, he finds himself at a crossroads of sorts, questioning the value of his passionless existence, his life's work in the Church and his faith in God. He thinks, at one point, "And indeed, what kind of faith was it? A poor, dried-out thing, a construct put together of habit, defiance and anxiety." For the first time since his adolescence Leo finds himself attracted to a woman, Madeline Brewer, the wife of a British diplomat. Madeline, (and the author is quick to point out the similarity in the names Madeline and Magdalene), senses that the attraction is mutual and overtly pursues a friendship with the priest - and then a stronger emotional relationship, and then...much more.

It is during this relationship between Madeline and Leo that papyrus fragments are discovered, in a dig near the Dead Sea, which may be the writings of Christ's disciple, Judas Iscariot. This potential "Gospel of Judas" could, if proved to be authentic, blow apart the foundation of Christianity and also the foundation on which Father Leo Newman has built his life. Newman is called upon to study the parchments for validation and interpretation.

While Leo is taxing his emotional limits, dealing with the Judas Gospel and his adulterous relationship with Madeline, Simon Mawr takes us back further in time to Italy during the war years. He seeks to explain Leo's troubled past by giving the reader a glimpse of his German parents' lives, and their characters, during the years prior to his birth. What is revealed here is astonishing in itself, as a story of terrible pain, conflict and betrayal, and also in the parallels to the emotional upheavals that Leo Newman is experiencing in the present.

Simon Mawr masterfully intertwines his stories as his characters cope with issues of faith, identity, responsibility, love, betrayal and loss - and what it means to believe. Betrayal permeates the narrative, beginning with relationships, events and lies which occur before Leo's birth, and continuing with his own, and Madeline's. The question also arises of whether to betray the truth - the facts of the new incendiary text, and perhaps, even the person who Judas was.

Mawr's prose is extraordinary, as usual, his characters sensitive and believable, their development is solid, and his research is impeccable. I was left, however, with a feeling of dissatisfaction at the novel's conclusion. I grew to care about the people Mawr created, especially Leo Newman. I found myself drawn into their lives and psyches. Mawr's ending left me hanging. His intelligent narrative built considerable tension as the novel's various scenarios played out, but I was left feeling that many of the issues were never resolved adequately enough to dispel the tension. Nor did Mawr answer many of the questions the novel posed. After such a glorious telling, the tale ended on a flat note.
JANA