A review by katiealex72
Damascus by Christos Tsiolkas

5.0

A wonderful, mysterious, well researched and passionate novel by one of my favourite writers; Damascus is quite different to his previous works. I can’t pretend that I understood everything about it on first reading, but this is a complex, layered book, which is going to age very well. The world of the eastern parts of the Roman Empire just after Christ’s death is a fascinatingly horrible place, for just about everybody. How did the vile torture and death of one educated but lowborn Jew come to symbolise a means of escaping the horror of the real world to be born into a promised kingdom of Heaven? How did his simple message...to love your neighbour as yourself... become twisted into so many different interpretations and meanings, eventually becoming almost lost in the very human desires for revenge? I’m an atheist but I found this a truly compelling story. Highly recommended.