The Secret Magdalene [Paperback]

Product Details

• Paperback: 458 pages
• Publisher: Eio Books
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0975925539
• ISBN-13: 978-0975925539
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,064,966 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

For the author's personal site see www.kilongfellow.com

For "The Secret Magdalene" see www.thesecretmagdalene.com

For "Flow Down Like Silver" see www.flowdownlikesilver.com

For "Houdini Heart" see http://eiobooks.com/houdini/

For the author's facebook fan page see www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Ki-Longfellow/134989848786

For her twitter see https://twitter.com/#!/KiLongfellow

Blogging away, see http://kilongfellow.wordpress.com/


From the age of four, Ki Longfellow knew what she wanted to be...a writer, or a painter, or a singer, or the the pilot of experimental aircraft. Writer it was. Born on Staten Island, New York, to a French-Irish mother and an Iroquois father, she grew up in Hawaii and Marin County, California, but ended up living in France and England for many years. She is the widow of a British national treasure, the complete artist Vivian Stanshall, who dreamed her name was Ki.

As Ki Longfellow-Stanshall, she created and sailed the Thekla, a 180 foot Baltic Trader, to Bristol, England where it became the Old Profanity Showboat. It remains there today as a Bristol landmark. On it, she and Vivian wrote and staged a unique musical for the sheer joy of it. "Stinkfoot, a Comic Opera," garnered a host of delighted, if slightly puzzled, national reviews and is currently in pre-production as a more than off-the-wall "mocku-documentary."

Her first book, "China Blues," now being republished, was the subject of a bidding war. Her second novel, "Chasing Women," (also soon to be republished)) introduced Longfellow to Hollywood...a long, hard, but ultimately fascinating trip.

When Vivian died, Ki stopped writing. Time may not heal, but it tempers, and eventually Ki began writing again. She chose the figure of Mary Magdalene to speak of gnosis (or "Knowing") in her acclaimed novel "The Secret Magdalene." Nancy Savoca, a brilliant independent film maker (winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize with her first film, "True Love") traveled all the way to Vermont to option the book as her next film.

Ki's second book in her Divine Feminine series is "Flow Down Like Silver," a novel about the numinous and gifted Hypatia of Alexandria, a tragically ignored woman of towering intellect who searched through intellect for what Mary Magdalene knew in her heart.

She is now at work on the third and last book in this series.

In 2011, Houdini Heart, Longfellow's first book of psychological horror was published. A stunning departure from her usual work, it's been favorably compared to Shirley Jackson and has also been selected by the Horror Writers of America as a recommended title for their next Bram Stoker Award.

She lives wherever she finds herself.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

231 of 231 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book of a Different Color, March 28, 2007

By 

Dennis W. Allen (Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Secret Magdalene: A Novel (Hardcover)

If you think this just another "religious" book, or something merely for questioning Christians, think again. If you think it is just another "Grail" attempt, wrong again. There is no Grail here. no bloodline, no claiming to be descended from anyone. This is a beautifully written work of spiritual depth and a search for real understanding. It uses the truth/myth of Mary Magdalene to explore questions we've been asking ourselves as humans for as long we could phrase a question at all. No creed is pushed here, nothing is required of us in this book but an open heart and an open mind. It's also a great read, a gripping adventure of mind, body, and spirit. I recommend it most highly.

216 of 216 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superlative, August 8, 2005

By 

G. Christy-Stefanik (Chiang Mai, Thailand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Secret Magdalene (Paperback)

As many who know me well are aware, I rarely have a good word for organized religion, and yet will often curl up with a book which concerns man's search for meaning.

Recently read `The Secret Magdalene', and now weeks later I can still feel the vibrancy of that ancient time and her incredible life. Not perhaps the Magdalene most are familiar with, but one whose life, words, ideas and world will transform all who encounter her in this phenomenal adventure.

Have been partial to historical novels since first encountering Mika Waltari's `The Egyptian' as an adolescent. "I, Sinhue, the son of Senmut and his wife Kipa, write this..." and I had entered another time and a fascinating world. Now more than half a century later I have discovered the exciting and very real world of Yeshu and Magdalene, and all those whose lives they encountered along the way and how each in turn was changed. I felt that I was present as the ideas and concepts of Gnosticism were born and developed. Indeed, I was changing as the protagonists changed.

A thought provoking work of infinite beauty. Not just the exquisite telling of a incredible story, but an experience. And one which I will return to again and again.

375 of 380 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Very Best Mary Magdalene, April 30, 2005

By 

Baazumi (New York City, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Secret Magdalene (Paperback)

I read all the books about Mary I can find. Some are good. Some aren't...although it seems to me that all are sincerely trying to bring Mary Magdalene back from the tomb she's been sealed up in for so long. A few really impress me with how much the writer has read themselves, and how much thought they've given to Mary and to her true place in history, as well as her rightful place in spiritual thought. But none of them are quite like this one. The book took my breath away. It's a novel, which means the author took liberties with the story. But since every New Testament Gospel is also different, I'd say there was a precedent for taking liberties with the life of Jesus. There's so much here. Bible stories, history, adventures, philosophy, interesting connections between historical figures I've heard of, and some I have never heard of. It's so rich and so exciting and so profound, I'm almost at a loss for words. One of the ideas that jumped out at me while I read along, gripped by the story, was this: you cannot "learn" what Jesus meant just by listening. You don "get it" by being taught. It's not an intellectual process. No one can "teach" another person to know God. It has to be deeply felt. So deeply, it can change you on a cellular level. This was what the ancients did with their mystery religions and their Passions. The Egyptians with Osiris, the Greeks with Dionysus. And the earliest Christians with Jesus Christ. The story of Jesus is meant to shake you to the core of your being. It's meant to rack you with feeling: joy, awe, reverence, then pity, then horror, then sorrow. That's what this book does. You follow Magdalene from her childhood to the Cross. And beyond. And on the way, you don't just learn something, you experience the Passion. This is a great book.