One of my all-time favorite books is The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd. When given the opportunity to read and review her latest book, I jumped at the chance. As with Wings, Kidd was able to take a well-known topic and craft an engaging story about a little-known part of it by seamlessly weaving together fiction and non-fiction.

The Book of Longings is the story of Ana, a young woman who has a talent for writing, but will lose all opportunity to express herself when she is forced into an arranged marriage. She encounters many characters, both cruel and kind during her odyssey to self-actualization. One of the people she meets, and later marries, is Jesus.

This was a very daring premise on the part of Kidd, but her in-depth research does not preclude Jesus from having a wife. The years of his life from 12-30 are unknown. Women were often side characters in the Bible. Kidd states, “In first-century Jewish world of Galilee, marriage was so utterly normative, it more or less went without saying.” It was likely Jesus would have been shamed by not taking a wife. Over the ensuing centuries, it became emphasized that Jesus was not married, and also during this time women were marginalized in the world. She asks how the Western world might be different today if Jesus had been married and his wife’s story had been told?

There will be much discussion about this book and I am sure many strong opinions will be held. I enjoyed the book and found the premise thought-provoking. Had it not been written by Sue Monk Kidd, the topic and time period would not have piqued my interest and I would have passed over this book. In my opinion it falls quite short of The Invention of Wings (as does most fiction), but it is a well-written read that I recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Viking Books for the eARC in return for an unbiased review.

This was an amazing book! I am not religious, but I was still drawn into the story, and I found myself crying at Jesu's cruxifixction as if I was a devout christian. Sue Monk Kidd has once again hit it out of the park. I fell in love.

Sue Monk Kidd is an artist and risk-taking author of the highest order. This book will make its headlines because is asks the question, "what if Jesus had a wife?", but that's only the question that provides the exoskeleton for a story of woman and women in a time when women were largely invisible. Ana is a 14 year old Jewish girl born into a wealthy family in Sepphoris, a wealthy Roman community ruled by Herod Antipas. Antipas is know for his cruelty, harsh ruling and is the employer of Ana's father, Herod's scribe and advisor. Both parents are self-involved schemers more interested in maintaing their wealth and status than their squalor of their people or Herod's perversities. Ana's support and confidant is her Aunt Yaltha, a scorned woman who's been dumped on Ana's parents who tolerate her in their home as long as she remains a quiet and shadowy presence. Ana has been indulged by her father in learning to read and write as that is her salvation in a society where women are meant not to be heard and rarely to be seen. Ana yearns for her voice to be heard and her quest is the central theme of the novel. When Ana's parents arrange her marriage to an older merchant, Ana's world seismically shifts and is the catalyst for the rest of this engaging and informative tale that follows Ana's joys, fears, danger and sorrows over the next 40+ years, which includes her marriage to Jesus. The author writes this novel having done considerable research in order to weave a fictional tale backed by historical fact about the society and events of that time. She is the voice of Ana and captures the spirit and longings of a young girl yearning for respect and acknowledgement in a repressed society where penalites for female independence are harsh and cruel. I couldn't put this book down and found it a perfect read for this time and place. While the subject matter of the book is bound to cause some controversy, the author's gutsy move in writing it and the conservations that might ensue as a result, make it all worthwhile, in my opinion.

The Book of Longings is a work of fiction.

Ana, the daughter of the chief scribe to Herod expresses her longings to be remembered throughout time in this pseudo-diary account of her life. She wants the world to know what life was like for a woman in the time of Herod and Pontius Pilate - and what  life would look like if you buck the system.

Her story is a simple but harsh one. Women, in general, had no rights. They're property to use and misuse. Wealthy men use their daughters as bargaining chips to enhance their wealth and power. The lower class women live lives of arduous physical labor while bearing child after child.

Sue Monk Kidd has chosen to present Ana as representative of all women - rich and poor- who dare to speak out, who seek recognition to make an impact on their own as  individuals; women with the right to chose their own futures and live their own dreams.

Ana's early childhood in an upper class home was unorthodox. She preferred learning foreign languages and idles away time in her father's library developing talents as a scribe. Her relationship with her mother is contentious as Ana refuses to learn skills necessary to become a subservient wife. Her relationship with her father is distant. He doesn't so much indulge Ana as overlook her quirky behavior with disinterest.

When Ana is fourteen-years-old, she begins her menses, and is quickly betrothed by her father to an old beetle-eyed and cruel landowner. Ana's introduction to her betrothed is a public spectacle in the heart of the marketplace intended to highlight the high status of both families. Her reaction upon meeting her intended was to faint dead-away. She is rescued from her fall by a young bearded man who visage brings on "odd smelting" in her thighs.

The old goat croaks before the marriage takes place. And more importantly before it is consummated. The death marks Ana's future as it is assumed that the betrothed Ana is no longer a virgin thus useless baggage to society. Ana at fourteen-years-old, is seen as a widow facing a bleak future through no fault of her own.

Ana defies social custom and wanders the forest and hills nearby for solace and discovers a cave - and in the cave she discovers the kind savior from the market, the young peasant, praying. They introduce themselves and she learns his name is Jesus. This unlikely duo form a close friendship that ultimately leads to marriage.

There is no doubt that Ana and Jesus love each other unconditionally. In one touching scene, Ana earns the endearing nickname "Little Thunder" as Jesus overhears some internal struggle occurring inside her gut while she slept. She, expresses her love, by calling him Beloved.

For Ana, moving to Jesus's family compound filled with siblings and their spouses is a shock. She has to partake in harsh physical tasks that she assumes to the best of her ability. In time, their marriage is strained as Jesus begins to realize that he has a mission from God that he must fulfill and begins to spend massive amounts of time away from Ana. The day arrives that Jesus tells Ana that he must go on alone to discover what he must do to fulfill his predestined future.

Ana never gives up on Jesus. Her life, after he leaves her, is one tragic day after another. With the help of other enlightened people, she is provided the means to document her story returning to her own passion as a scribe. Through Ana we follow the final days of Jesus concluding with his death. We feel her agony as she witnesses his final steps burdened with the weight of the cross. We cry with her as she stands at the foot of the cross.

Reviewer's Note:
Phew. This was a hard one. It took me a couple of weeks to address this review. Here is it is, Easter weekend 2020, sheltering in my home. Ana's story is powerful but being married to our Savior, Jesus Christ of Nazareth will always beg top billing.

The book, well-researched, at times felt stilted and started out slowly in my estimation. Things did speed up as familiar Biblical names and scenes entered the story line. By the end of the book, I was in tears.

Now with the world crushed by Covid-19, and several of my family valiantly serving on the medical front lines, my nerves are on edge and affects how I perceive or react to things. This prickly reaction to things, that in the past would roll off my back like water off a duck, most certainly affected my review of this fiction that touches sensitive religious topics.

Ana's need for her husband, Jesus, to be "just a man" bumps up against his insatiable need to serve his God. After years of my viewing Jesus in stained glass windows rocking a halo it felt, at times, strange to see him described as a plain and simple man, just like the rest of us poor souls. Vulnerable and weak. I am not a deeply religious person so my discomfort was surprising to me.

Thanks to the Netgalley and the publisher for the privilege of reading and reviewing this ARC.

Jesus's early adult life is largely a mystery and in this novel, Sue Monk Kidd explores the question: what if Jesus married as was expected of 20 year old men in that time? Ana, the fictional character that marries Jesus, is much more that just Jesus's wife and Judas's sister. She is a strong, intelligent woman who stands up for her beliefs and women's rights. Her story is woven into events and characters from the New Testament in an engrossing believable way. Very enjoyable book.

The Friendship List
A Novel
by Susan Mallery
HARLEQUIN - Romance (U.S. & Canada)
HQN
Women's Fiction
Pub Date 26 May 2020 | Archive Date 17 Jun 2020

Loved this latest release by Susan Mallery!! Will highly recommend to friends and patrons at my library.
5 STARS!!

As a Christian, I was hesitant to read this book,. That said, the story was well written and believable. Sue Monk Kidd did her research admirably. Ana, the daughter of a wealthy family, was a daring and rebellious writer of scrolls about the fate of neglected and misused women. She was betrothed to an older widower. Being horrified by this news from her parents, she cleverly figured out how to escape this fate. She met Jesus at the entrance of a cave where she had gone to hide her scrolls and immediately fell in love with him. They married and she became pregnant with a little girl who died in childbirth. As a reader, I was impressed by the amount of research that was done for this book. Agree or not, it is worth reading and will make a good discussion book.

I have enjoyed Kidd’s writing and storytelling very much and so chose to read this without really knowing the subject. It is well written albeit slow in the beginning. Kidd tells the story of Ana, wife of Jesus of Nazareth. I had no difficulty in imagining Christ with a wife, a feminist wife and scholar, nor the portrayal of him as a average man of the time. As the story evolves both characters come into the roles they are meant to play. I did have difficulty understanding the choice of portraying Christ’s birth as a question of paternity that plagued his childhood because I don’t understand Mary that is silent about it, indeed is silent about everything that she experienced. Coincidence that I finished reading this on Easter Sunday and so read about the Passion after I heard it at (online) church.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Book of Longings is a beautiful reimagining of Christian history and heritage. Kidd does a remarkable job of steering well clear of religious topics. Instead, she focuses on the humanity of Christ and the life of his fictitious wife. I absolutely loved the interjection of a staunchly feminist character into a time that was not ready to hear her voice.

Ana is rebellious from a young age and finds a kindred spirit in Jesus, who also thinks and acts differently from his Jewish brethren. Their relationship was generally heartwarming, although it did feel a little lukewarm at times. I suspect Kidd did this on purpose to toe the line in respect of Christian belief. For me, though, it was one of the few weak parts of the novel. I also found the storyline involving Ana’s brother simultaneously interesting and troubling. The escalation at the end of the novel, while obvious given her brother’s identity, did not seem to be fully developed. It seemed Kidd relied on our biblical knowledge and name recognition rather than fleshing out the story of how Ana’s brother ended up where he did. Of course, argument could be made that this was Ana’s story not her brother’s. For these two reasons, I docked a star. In all other respects, I found this a well-written, well-researched, and highly enjoyable novel.

In the author’s note, Kidd says that if Jesus did have a wife (and there is no historical evidence one way or the other), she would be the most silenced woman in all of history. I have to agree, and I think Kidd’s portrayal of Ana is a fitting tribute.

The Book of Longings is a what if: what if Jesus was married? It's certainly a valid question as his movements, as tracked in the Bible, don't start until he's well into adulthood, and documents from the time period are spotty due to all the unrest in Emperor Tiberius"s reign.

Sue Monk Kidd introduces Ana, daughter of wealthy parents who has learned to write, believes in herself and that women matter outside the home (this was a fairly radical notion) and is related to Judas.

Ana is a great at everything, always has her wits about her, and manages to carve out her own life while being present for the start of Jesus' ministry and his death.

This should be a great book--it is written with care and a close eye for historical events, etc. but Ana is simply too perfect. There is nothing she can't do, no historical moment she isn't part of, and those with even a passing familiarity with Jesus's life know what will happen. Everything unfolds at a near glacial pace and while I enjoy description and side quests as much as anyone, this would have been better as a novella, with tighter pacing and less meandering toward the foregone conclusion.

I’m not generally one for books of a religious nature, but this was a new interesting take on such a well-known story. And it brought a woman’s voice into a time period and story that usually isn’t there. Loved the story of a woman finding her voice against all odds!

Ana and her brother Judas were raised in a wealthy family in Galilee. When Ana meets a worker - Jesus - she is instantly enamored with him. However, her parents have engaged her to marry a much older man. On the eve of her wedding the older man is struck ill and dies. Ana, now considered a widow, has few, if any, prospects. When she is almost stoned in the village, Jesus steps in and saves her. The two are married shortly afterwards.

I am an atheist, I was a bit hesitant about reading this book however, I was instantly drawn in to the story. The book was not preachy, was not religious, instead it was just a well written, engaging story. I would love to read more from this author. Overall, highly recommended.

The Book by Longings by Sue Monk Kidd Reviewed March 30, 2020 3.5 Stars
I have only read a few of author, Sue Monk Kidd] novels. My two favorites were “The Invention of Wings” and “The Secret Life of Bees”.
I requested this novel primarily because it was the latest Sue Monk Kidd novel.

What if?
Jesus married.
What if?
During the lost years between when he was twelve and thirty; he was a normal Jewish young
man and fell in love.
What if?
Jesus married a girl like Ana.

This is a fictional story based on Ana not Jesus the son of God but Jesus a young Jewish man. This is not a religious story but historical fiction.

AT times this was slow and not my favorite Sue Monk Kidd novel I did like reading this with Easter 2020 right around the corner. Our news has been all about the terrible covid-19 virus and I have to admit I got caught up in it and didn’t do my usual Lenten Easter preparation. (However, I sure have been saying more prayers.)


I enjoyed the Author’s Notes and how Ms. Kidd did her research and did attempt to adhere to the biblical stories of Jesus’s trial, crucifixion, and burial.

Want to thank NetGalley and Penguin Random House Viking Group for this early release granted in exchange for an honest professional review. Publishing Release Date scheduled for April 21, 2020

I have looked forward to Sue Monk Kidd's next book for a long time! This did not disappoint! This was such an interesting and novel idea to read about. What would happen if Jesus had been married? Kidd's attention to historical detail and painstaking research is evident throughout this book. For those who loved The Red Tent, this will become a favorite. I loved the characters and their development throughout the book...even at the heart-wrenching ending. It is so believable when you are reading it--it feels like you are actually there. Another haunting, phenomenal read by Sue Monk Kidd!

Wow, very interesting. Quite deep and occasionally hard to follow. I felt the mid section was a bit of a slog, but overall a moving story.

This is the story of Ana, Jesus' wife. Yes, that Jesus, but it's her story, not his. Kidd takes the undocumented portion of Jesus' life and spins that a typical young male of this time period would be married. Ana defies her family and rejects the arranged match her parents plan to wed Jesus, a poor carpenter. But as I said, this is her story. Ana is a feminist; atypical for her gender, she is literate, and finds great joy in it, particularly as a writer. She is a feminist and noting that few stories about women, especially written by women, exists, her dream is to be a storyteller, and to be remembered for her writings. There are several richly drawn female characters, whose stories overlap Ana's, and in some cases, Jesus'. Jesus loves Ana, and supports her desire to write, although the day to day life they share leaves her little time for it. She supports and worries for him as he follows his path towards ministry, and a plausible explanation for why these paths diverge is written. A very interesting read for fans of historical fiction and of books about women's voices.

When I saw this title on NetGalley, I chose it purely because it was by Sue Monk Kidd. When I began reading and realized it was the story of Jesus' wife, I hesitated. I do not enjoy biblical fiction. However, I decided to trust Sue Monk Kidd, to open my heart and mind. I am so glad I did. SMK does an amazing job focusing on the women in the story and the roles they were expected to follow. Ana, Jesus' wife , does not fit the norm, just as Jesus did not fit the norm. When I had about 80 pages left, I gasped. I was not ready fo the book to end.

This is a book that will appeal to the feminist in you. This book is a celebration of a woman finding her voice. This well researched book will make you smile and make you cry. Just read it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this arc in exchange for an honest review.

If Jesus did marry, this would be the woman. Sue Monk Kidd has written another masterful story, imagining what life would be like for Jesus's wife. In an age when women were invisible, Ana is a presence larger than life through her written words, and passionate love for Jesus. Monk has paralleled closely the stories from the Bible. Her extensive research is clearly evident, and makes the book plausible and lovely at the same time. I would highly recommend this book! We know Jesus was human and divine. I came away from this story with the human Jesus walking beside me.

The Book of Longings was an interesting viewpoint of the life of Jesus from the perspective of a wife. Being a Christian and having read and studied the Bible all my life, I related incidents that Ssue Monk Kidd wrote in her book to incidents written in the Bible and they were remarkably similar and possible from a fiction writer's perspective. Since I read this book during the Lenten season, it resonated even more with me. It is a mind-challenging and thoughtful endeavor.

Imagine that Jesus had a wife. Not Mary Magdalene as proposed in The DaVinci Code and any other number of books ranging from fictional to scholarly. Imagine that Jesus, in the years between reaching manhood and beginning his public role as prophet and visionary, when he lived as an ordinary Jewish man, fulfilling the ordinary expectations regarding family life, had a wife. Who would that woman have been, the one who formed a lifelong bond with a man who would become increasingly focused on a nonviolent struggle to free the Jewish people? What were her interests? What drove her? What did she do as Jesus left home for longer and longer periods of time traveling the Jewish world? What was her relationship to G-d?

In The Book of Longings Sue Monk Kidd creates her own set of answers to these questions—imagined, not factual, but grounded in careful research into the time period and region. The beauty of her answer and the reason this book succeeds are due to the completeness with which she depicts Ana: wife of Jesus, aspiring scribe at a time when few women were literate, theological skeptic, who moves across geographical and class boundaries.

The Book of Longings is both engaging and surprising, deeply moving, and a testimony to the strength of women across time. Highly recommended.

I received a free electronic review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. The Opinions are my own.