Mary of Nazareth: A Novel [Paperback]

Marek Halter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2, 2008

The ancient world through the eyes of a young Jewish woman—Mary of Nazareth.

Mary was born into a Palestine oppressed by Herod the Great; she is accustomed to living with uncertainty and unrest. But when her beloved father is wrongly imprisoned by the Romans, she takes action. She calls upon a well-known rebel by the name of Barabbas, and together they set out to save her father. A daring escape is planned. And against staggering odds, Mary’s father is saved from crucifixion.

Barabbas—flush with his success—is intent on leading a full-scale rebellion against Herod and the Romans. But as he speaks before Jewish leaders, Mary feels great frustration as the men endlessly debate morality, rebellion, and God's will. She has almost lost her father, but she is nevertheless compelled to speak out against violence.

To her surprise, one man listens: Joseph. He makes Mary an offer that will change her life—and the history of the Jewish people—forever.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Harek, author of biblically-inspired novels such as Zipporah, Wife of Moses and Sarah, imagines the childhood and tumultuous young adulthood of Miriam (Mary) of Nazareth, mother of Jesus. Her loving parents Joachim and Hannah want to protect their daughter, but violence surrounds them as Herod's egregious taxation sparks Jewish insurrection. Miriam befriends a young revolutionary named Barabbas (yes, the same seditious Barabbas to be released more than three decades later instead of Jesus), and her world is upended by political uncertainty. In Halter's hands, Miriam is equal parts brazen temerity and quiet holiness, her deep courage an example to those who would submit to injustice, her scholarship unusual among women and her skill at healing remarkable. The novel offers brisk pacing and a good deal of adventure. Along the way, readers will learn a great deal of the ascetic Essene sect and the traditions and practices of first-century Judaism. And the novel's climax-the famous Annunciation-happens not out of the blue, but because a determined Miriam asks Yahweh to bring the Messiah and is blessed. In Halter's hands, Mary is not a passive receptacle of divine grace, but an active agent in changing the world.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Halter, whose Canaan Trilogy dramatized the lives of Old Testament women Sarah, Zipporah, and Lilah, moves into New Testament territory with this novel about Mary. Although he always makes his characters his own, he takes Mary in a direction that borders on alternative history. This Mary is a feisty young woman, educated (she was schooled with the slightly younger Mary Magdalene) and so bold that she, along with her friend, the rebel Barabbas, stages a plot to remove her father from the Romans’ cross. Disgusted watching men like her father, Joseph, as well as Nicodemus and Barabbas, debate ways to topple the Romans, she wills herself to become the vessel for a savior. The story seems to end with the birth of Jesus, but then Halter adds a curious epilogue in which he claims to have received a Gospel of Mary from a mysterious Righteous Gentile. The text of the purported gospel continues the story, telling of an unwilling Jesus and an overbearing Mary. This odd device doesn’t quite work, but, nevertheless, the novel is an engaging and thought-provoking addition to the growing body of historical fiction on biblical women. --Ilene Cooper --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press; Reprint edition (December 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307394840
• ISBN-13: 978-0307394842
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.7 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #469,170 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Marek Halter's sick ending to "Mary of Nazareth", August 22, 2008

By 

MEG "the Good Book reader" (New York State, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mary of Nazareth: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is a very imaginative story about Mary, the mother of Jesus. The book helped me to grasp the desperation the Jews felt living under their local (Jewish) ruler,Herod, and how arbitrary & cruel life was for the Jewish nation under him. I can more readily understand how much they hoped for the foretold Messiah. I would have liked to see the list of researched materials the author used.

I gave this a low rating, however, because Marek Halter pulled a fast one at the end of the book. He added a realistic postscript which explains that an old Polish woman allegedly gave Halter, when he visited Warsaw, an ancient text supposedly written by Mary. In it, Mary testifies that Joseph of Arimathea gave Jesus a drug that only made him seem dead, for 3 days. And that Jesus walked away through a fault in the tomb. Then Halter provides another postscript which implies that the old Poilish woman's son, naturally named Jesus, died at Auschwitz, so we are left with the impression that it was all a misunderstanding on the author's part, or on our part, or on a bogus translation's part. Whatever.

I am quite upset with Mr. Halter because he broke trust with us, his readers. He brought us into the life of Mary, into a world he created,
then jerks us around with a denial of Jesus as the son of God because the central core of Christianity is Jesus's resurrection; not that Jesus performed miracles, not that Mary was a virgin, etc., but that Jesus rose from the dead. He is laughing at us via these bogus postscripts. No thank you, I will not entertain to read your books again!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars interesting but highly unorthodox, December 26, 2009

By 

lala48 "ljk48" (Kahului HI) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mary of Nazareth: A Novel (Paperback)

while the book is basically fiction it helped me to reject the portrayal of Mary as read in Mary of Nazareth; it made me appreciate and uphold the beliefs I have held of Mary throughout my life...

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Jesus Doped, Reader Duped, March 16, 2009

By 

Mary Sophia "Discriminating Reader" (New Holland, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mary of Nazareth: A Novel (Paperback)

The imaginative account of Mary's everyday life as a Jew during a turburlent period of history drew me in and I could dispel disbelief in Mary's highly unlikely adventures with other biblical people, but as the story continued and became increasingly strange, I began to lose interest. But what really turned me off to this book was the absurdly unbelievable ending with the writer's finding of "The Gospel of Mary" in which she reveals that as her son was dying on the cross, the Roman executioner shoved a sponge saturated with a narcotic into his mouth (believing it was vinegar).

He appeared to die, but no, he had just been doped! His body was placed in the tomb which conveniently had a hidden entranceway in the back through which Mary entered and waited for him to wake up. She and a few of his followers stayed with him for 3 days after which he said it was time for him to go. NO DEATH, NO RESSURECTION. Jesus had just been doped and I had been duped.

Yes, it's just a novel, but when readers consider this book, they need to know that although it appears to be biblically based, it just uses Bible people as a takeoff point for what many will consider heresy and others will consider just plain weird.