Gospel of Judas [Paperback]

Life is what we make of it, and (Father) Leo Newman (the story's protagonist) has made a botch of his. And just as his religious faith begins to fall prey to his mounting doubts, Madeleine Brewer ("Maddy" - Mawer's choice of character names is subtly clever) enters the scene, and away they go; displacing thought for action, the cerebral for the physical. Mawer conflates this love triangle - Maddy is married to a British diplomat; Leo is married to his faith and religion - with the discovery of another gospel, this one by Judas Iscariot. What Leo, as translator of the parchment, learns about Jesus Christ and the birth of Christianity causes him to view the religious and the secular in a different light...

This book's marketing can create some confusion: is it a dialectic about faith, a thriller, a love story? It is each of these, and more. Simon Mawer has managed - artfully, gracefully - to ensnare the reader into entertaining even enjoying the questions (and some answers) that transcend our individual lives.

*The Gospel of Judas* is, quite simply, an astounding novel - perhaps the best novel I have read in several years! Admittedly, it does include ALL of the topics and issues that *I* find so thrilling: faith, religion, history, and language. Mawer's love of language mimics his love for the quotidian, and allows him to tell a tale for all.

But don't take my word for it, on faith; check it out for yourself. You must see, smell, feel, and read this novel, to believe it. Highest recommendation.

Near the Dead Sea, a new scroll from the time of Jesus has been discovered. The church sends Rome teacher-scholar Father Leo Newman to investigate and translate the newest find. Leo is going through a difficult period as he has doubts about his chosen avocation ever since he met and sinned by having an affair with Madeline Brewer. Still, Leo immediately travels to Jerusalem to join an international team inspecting the rich find, but his assignment is to concentrate on one particular papyrus.

Leo quickly realizes that the document the Church sent him to inspect apparently contains the Gospel accordance to Judas Iscariot. Instead of supporting the other Gospels, this scroll denies much of what has been claimed. Leo begins to comprehend how Judas felt when he condemned his best friend to death.

THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS is an insightful look at the Judas betrayal but in a modern text and through Leo's break in faith. The story line is fast-paced especially in an allegorical manner that compares Leo to Judas. The flashbacks to World War II are cleverly written, but the story belongs to the Leo-Judas relationship that, in turn, proves how talented Simon Mawer truly is.

Harriet Klausner

"The Gospel of Judas" is a novel containing three skillfully woven storylines, all sharing the theme of betrayal. The events are recounted in flashbacks to a time a few years before the present, and to a period during WWII in Italy. Underlying the entire narrative is the theme of Judas Iscariot. When I hear the name Judas, I immediately associate it with the word "betrayal." Some of the questions this novel poses are, who was Judas? Did he betray? Has religious history given Judas a bad rap?

Father Leo Newman, a Roman Catholic priest, is a biblical scholar working in Rome for the World Bible Center. He is an expert at deciphering, translating and interpreting the bits and pieces of ancient papyrus discovered in Near Eastern archeological sites that deal with biblical history, especially those pertaining to New Testament writings. Newman is lonely, middle-aged, and somewhat ascetic. When the novel opens, he finds himself at a crossroads of sorts, questioning the value of his passionless existence, his life's work in the Church and his faith in God. He thinks, at one point, "And indeed, what kind of faith was it? A poor, dried-out thing, a construct put together of habit, defiance and anxiety." For the first time since his adolescence Leo finds himself attracted to a woman, Madeline Brewer, the wife of a British diplomat. Madeline, (and the author is quick to point out the similarity in the names Madeline and Magdalene), senses that the attraction is mutual and overtly pursues a friendship with the priest - and then a stronger emotional relationship, and then...much more.

It is during this relationship between Madeline and Leo that papyrus fragments are discovered, in a dig near the Dead Sea, which may be the writings of Christ's disciple, Judas Iscariot. This potential "Gospel of Judas" could, if proved to be authentic, blow apart the foundation of Christianity and also the foundation on which Father Leo Newman has built his life. Newman is called upon to study the parchments for validation and interpretation.

While Leo is taxing his emotional limits, dealing with the Judas Gospel and his adulterous relationship with Madeline, Simon Mawr takes us back further in time to Italy during the war years. He seeks to explain Leo's troubled past by giving the reader a glimpse of his German parents' lives, and their characters, during the years prior to his birth. What is revealed here is astonishing in itself, as a story of terrible pain, conflict and betrayal, and also in the parallels to the emotional upheavals that Leo Newman is experiencing in the present.

Simon Mawr masterfully intertwines his stories as his characters cope with issues of faith, identity, responsibility, love, betrayal and loss - and what it means to believe. Betrayal permeates the narrative, beginning with relationships, events and lies which occur before Leo's birth, and continuing with his own, and Madeline's. The question also arises of whether to betray the truth - the facts of the new incendiary text, and perhaps, even the person who Judas was.

Mawr's prose is extraordinary, as usual, his characters sensitive and believable, their development is solid, and his research is impeccable. I was left, however, with a feeling of dissatisfaction at the novel's conclusion. I grew to care about the people Mawr created, especially Leo Newman. I found myself drawn into their lives and psyches. Mawr's ending left me hanging. His intelligent narrative built considerable tension as the novel's various scenarios played out, but I was left feeling that many of the issues were never resolved adequately enough to dispel the tension. Nor did Mawr answer many of the questions the novel posed. After such a glorious telling, the tale ended on a flat note.
JANA