Published 18th March 2021 in paperback by Tinder Press.
Hardcover edition originally reviewed April 2020.
From the cover of the book:
Ana is born in Galilee at a time when women are seen as possessions, only leaving their fathers’ homes to marry.Ana longs to control her destiny. Taught to read despite her mother’s misgivings, she wants to be a writer and to find her own voice. A voice that will speak for the silenced women around her.
Betrothed to an elderly widower, Ana almost despairs. But an encounter with a charismatic young carpenter in Nazareth awakens new longings in her, and a different future opens up.
Yet this is not a simple love story. Ana’s journey will bring both joy and tragedy, but it will also be enriched by the female friendships she makes along the way.
The Book of Longings is an exquisite tale of dreams and desire, and of the power of women to change the world.
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In this book, Sue Monk Kidd has taken on the mammoth, and might I say, incredibly brave task of reimagining the life of Jesus as one in which he had a wife - rather than being the celibate and scholarly single man we are used to hearing about. I was looking forward to reading this book enormously and as soon as I read the first line I knew I was going to be in for a treat, because it made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck...
"I am Ana. I was the wife of Jesus ben Joseph of Nazareth."
From the very beginning, Sue Monk Kidd's intentions are clear about where she wants to take us with her novel. This is going to be Ana's story, not a bible retelling. It is obvious that Ana's journey is going to be one fraught with difficulties, as we cannot fail to be aware of the fate of the man she marries, but it also opens up intriguing possibilities about where this journey goes.
To my mind, Monk Kidd takes the perfect line here, using just the right amount of what we have read about Jesus from the Bible and working this into her story in a way that portrays him as an ordinary man - albeit one who comes to see himself as a someone with a singular purpose. The focus remains on Ana at all times and we come to know Jesus through her eyes as a son, a brother and a husband - in ways that are are real and significant to Ana and the other females in the novel.
Interestingly, much of Jesus' part in the wider story takes place in the wings, and we hear about his exploits obliquely through Ana's interactions with other characters around them, which leaves the reader with the freedom to believe what they wish about his life. I particularly enjoyed how Judas has such a central role to play throughout in this book, and the way his part plays out in these pages gave me real pause for thought.
Essentially, this is a book that honours female friendship and support networks, and acknowledges the power of women: one that gives voice to Ana, and her small group of female companions, and also suggests so much about the kind of life an educated woman might have lived at this time if she had been able to take the opportunities freely granted to men. Monk Kidd presents us with a fabulous cast of female characters too - all of them women of unfathomable inner strength, who support, and transform each other. It is the voices of the women who sing out from these pages: the women who have been silenced, made invisible, or had their stories distorted over time in the history books written by men. It is the women who carry this story and their struggle is just as relevant today.
The Book of Longings is the most incredible novel that deals sensitively and imaginatively with a subject that many would consider taboo. I was curious about how Sue Monk Kidd would tackle Jesus himself in her book before reading it, conscious that there was a difficult path to be walked with this one, but in viewing this wholly from the perspective of a novelist she has produced a story which is full of humanity, love and tenderness - and one which touched me deeply.
The Book of Longings is available to buy in hardcover, paperback, e-book and audio formats from your favourite book retailer.
Thank you to Caitlin Raynor at Headline for originally sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review and to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the author:
Sue Monk Kidd is the author of The Secret Life of Bees, one of the most beloved novels of the 21st century. It spent 2.5 years on the New York Times bestseller list, and has sold over 8 million copies worldwide. It was long-listed for the Orange Prize (now the Women’s Prize for Fiction) and made into a film starring Sophie Okonedo, Alicia Keys and Jennifer Hudson.
Sue’s subsequent novels, The Mermaid Chair, The Invention of Wings and now The Book of Longings, were all New York Times bestsellers.
Sue is also the author of several non-fiction books including the New York Times bestseller Travelling with Pomegranates, co-written with her daughter Ann Kidd Taylor. Sue lives in Florida.
Huge thanks for the blog tour support x
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