Amazon.co.uk Review
Pontius Pilate, by Ann Wroe, is beautifully written, imaginatively researched, and intricately structured. Most importantly, it provides readers with a valuable emotional experience: a chance to rediscover and redeem Pilate's famous question--"What is truth?"--in a spirit of humility and hope. A handful of small coins and one inscribed stone are the only physical evidence that Pilate existed. All of the textual sources that mention Pilate, Wroe notes, are "so wrapped in propaganda or agendas that it is difficult to detect what, if anything, may be true". But since Pilate "stands at the centre of the Christian story and God's plan of redemption", Wroe persevered in her efforts to discern the profile of his life. "Without his climactic judgment of Jesus, the world would not have been saved. To have a faceless bureaucrat at the heart of all this drama was unacceptable: something had to be made of this man". The book's bold ambition, however, is not blind. "This is not a search for the 'real' Pilate", Wroe admits. "At best, all we have are glints and hypotheses". To learn about her subject, Wroe had to sacrifice most of her sympathetic impulses, and shift her concentration to the elements of Roman life that she did not understand. And oddly enough, the passages in which Wroe describes her ignorance most clearly are the passages where we begin to glimpse "a man actually walking on a marble floor in Caesarea, feeling his shoes pinch, clicking his fingers for a slave, while clouds of lasting infamy gather overhead".

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews   6 of 6 people found the following review helpful: a 'non-fictional' historical novel, 14 Aug 2005 By  Ms. S. Helme (London) - See all my reviews    This review is from: Pontius Pilate (Modern Library Paperbacks) (Paperback) This is an absolutely gorgeous book. The author skillfully uses a mixture of literary techniques which keeps you utterly enthralled, paragraph to paragraph. I am trying to write a historical novel about first century Palestine; if only I could live up to this standard. Besides the exceptional skill of the writing, there is something truly unique about this as a historical novel. While it reads like a novel, it has such a nonfictional approach. And this is the story of a man in the ancient past about whom we know practically nothing. Without ever actually inventing dialogue or plotline for Pilate, she skillfully suggests, using references from Moses to Ovid to medieval passion plays how things might have been. The only invention is the beautiful similes, metaphors and parallel stories illustrating analogies. Best book I've read in years (and I read a LOT).  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this) › See all customer reviews...		Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews