Publication Date: 25/03/2021 ISBN: 9781787332928 Category:

Names of the Women

Jeet Thayil

Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Publication Date: 25/03/2021 ISBN: 9781787332928 Category:
Hardback

£15.99

Out of stock

Description

From the Booker-shortlisted author of Narcopolis, in prose of extraordinary power, a novel about the women whose roles were suppressed, reduced or erased in the Gospels.

‘Dazzling, smouldering . . . It is literally a tale that’s waited a thousand years to be told.’ MARLON JAMES, WINNER OF THE 2015 MAN BOOKER PRIZE

Names of the Women begins with Christ on the cross addressing Mary of Magdala, asking her to bear witness to his death. As the novel unfolds, it tells the stories of fifteen women whose lives overlapped with the life of Christ. Lydia and Assia, Martha and Mary of Bethany, Junia the Widow of Jerusalem, Susanna the Barren, Ariamma the Canaanite, and others whose names have been spoken only in passing or not at all. Women who stayed with Christ through the crucifixion, when his disciples had abandoned him, and who spread his radical message – one that made them equals and a profound threat to power within the church.

Together, the voices of the women dare us to reimagine the story of the New Testament in a way it has never before been told.

*A ‘BOOKS OF 2021’ PICK IN THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND NEW STATESMAN*

Publisher Review

Achingly beautiful. Powerful, poetic and profoundly feminist. -- Jennifer Croft An electrifying new treatment of the old story; haunting, mysterious, intelligent. -- Tessa Hadley Names of the Women is an extraordinary work of restoration, playful invention, and stark beauty. In Jeet Thayil's skilled telling the gospel stories, which have lasted so long, spread so far, and become so dulled by familiarity, have their deep original strangeness returned to them. -- Chris Power Names of The Women unerases the erased, gives voice to the silenced, restores the lost, and brings dazzling, smouldering life to stories long left for dead. It is literally a tale that's waited a thousand years to be told. -- Marlon James, Winner of the 2015 Booker Prize

Book experts at your service

What are you looking for?

A recommendation
Something specific
  • Mr B's Recommendation Station
  • Fill in the three questions below, along with your name and email address, and our book experts will be in touch soon with their personal recommendations

  • I'm after something specific
  • Tell us about the book, author or subject you're looking for, along with your name and email address and our book experts will be in touch as soon as possible