Christ the Lord

von Anne Rice

This is a novel about the childhood of Jesus from Alexandria to Galilee in the turbulent 1st century - the story of the boy who was born to be King of the Jews, the "ultimate supernatural hero, the ultimate outsider, and the ultimate immortal". Incomparable in its boldness and daring, shockingly timely in its evocation of the Middle Eastern world in another era, hers is a unique and palpable rendering of part of the greatest story ever told. Evoking this crucial time in the life of Christ, based on the Gospels and her intense research into the period, Anne Rice magically recreates these years of drama, confusion, and enlightenment. The story opens in cosmopolitan Alexandria where the family has fled. But, when Herod dies, they take ship for Israel, a land under Roman occupation at a time of insurrection and confusion after the death of a tyrant king. It is an astonishing child's eye view - part innocent, part knowing - of Jewish life in these unruly years of occupation; and of the boy's growing awareness, first of his extraordinary powers, and then of the whispered mysteries surrounding his birth. We watch him grow, steeped in the laws, rituals and traditions of his people, beginning to discuss and dispute with the Elders, and to ask questions that cannot be answered. And, at the end, we feel the strength of his resolve as the boy comes face to face with the truth about his past and the challenge of his future.