Damascus
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Hardback
£16.99
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Publisher: Atlantic Books
ISBN: 9781838950217
Number of Pages: 432
Published: 05/03/2020
Width: 15.3 cm
Height: 23.4 cm
'We are despised, yet we grow. We are tortured and crucified and yet we flourish. We are hated and still we multiply. Why is that? You must wonder, how is it we survive?'
In a far corner of the Roman Empire, a radical sect is growing.
Alone, unloved and battling his sexuality, Saul scrapes together a living exposing these nascent Christians, but on the road to Damascus, everything changes.
Saul - now Paul - becomes drawn into this new religion and its mysterious leader, whose crucifixion leaves followers waiting in limbo for his promised return. As factions splinter and competition to create the definitive version of Christ's life grows violent, he begins to question his new faith and the man at its heart.
Damascus is an unflinching dissection of doubt, faith, tyranny, revolution, cruelty and sacrifice. A vivid and visceral novel with perennial concerns, it is a masterpiece of imagination and transformation.
The novel Tsiolkas was born to write * Financial Times * A visceral portrait of the life of St Paul -- Rob Doyle * Guardian * A powerful testament to spiritual yearning and the human desire to transcend the physical world. * Sunday Times * A narrative of shock and awe, fear and trembling, so large in ambition it will probably be the book for which he will be best remembered... Tsiolkas has made a career of taking sanctioned narratives and flipping them to reveal a dark human underbelly... At its best, which is miraculously often, the novel is conjugated not in the simple present but in what is knows as the "prophetic perfect". * The Weekend Australian * There are too many highlights to count in this daring, shocking, speculative work of biblical fiction by one of Australia's highest-profile authors. Captivating... * The Herald Sun * One of the most significant contemporary storytellers at work today * Colm Toibin * A vivid novel... an insightful and sympathetic portrait of a man assailed by doubts, envy and pride, and tormented by his own homosexuality. Both insider and outsider, Tsiolkas writes with enormous respect and admiration for Christianity's message of love and equality, while recognizing all the flaws that Christianity, like any religion, is subject to - intolerance, populism and fundamentalism, and grubby worldliness. * Selina O'Grady * An enormously ambitious novel... Tsiolkas' message is ultimately one of hope and humanity... This is a brave, unflinching book. * The Listner * Hyper real. I could taste the salt of Saul's sweat as I gasped and cried my way through the book... This latest release confirms his ability to identify and describe both the best and the worst of us humans, whether we wear sandals or sneakers. * The Age * Startling... Moving and powerful... * ABC * There aren't any cinematic sandal-and-toga moments here; these people are hyper real. I could taste the salt of Saul's sweat as I gasped and cried my way through the book. * Sunday Star Time * A deeply researched, crafted fictional world created by one of Australia's greatest literary talents. * Sydney Morning Herald * Tsiolkas takes on nothing less than the birth of Christianity - and does so with rigour and grit. This is as-it-happens history, deeply immersive, yet alive to hindsight irony. It's a brave book, and sincerely spiritual. * Sydney Morning Herald * One of Australia's best writers... rough, gutsy and sometimes shocking book, but always a gripping read. * About Regional *