The Gospel According to Jesus Christ: Jose Saramago

Saramago`s ingenious fictionalised account of the life of Jesus

Saramago`s Jesus is the son not of God but of Joseph. Mary Magdalene is his lover not his convert. In the wilderness he tussles not with the Devil – a kindly and necessary evil – but with God, a fallible, power-hungry autocrat. And he must die not for the sins of the fathers but for the sins of the Father. By investigating these simple inversions Saramago has woven a dark parable; a secular gospel of astonishing richness and depth.

‘An original, wild and beautiful book’ Times Literary Supplement