This book was complicated and eccentric. I had to really focus to keep the many characters and events straight. The same aspects that made this a difficult read were part of what made it so good as well. Its elaborateness and ingenuity made for a great read. I wouldn't recommend it to a casual reader; this is for people that are passionate about reading.

Book Info: Genre: Spiritual/Religious fiction
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Fans of apocalyptic fiction, esp. relating to traditional religious thoughts on it

My Thoughts: This was a very strange book. While Yune is Muslim, the book itself seems to embrace all spiritual paths, which I actually appreciated. So often these sorts of things end up promoting one path over all others. Anyway, the synopsis gives a fairly concise description of the story, and there is not much else to say other than that. The characters are just there to move the story along, so there isn't much in the way of character development other than broad strokes, and the story itself is more about the journey than anything else. It sometimes moves years within the course of a paragraph. It was a fairly interesting story, but not a traditional one.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer's Program in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: The Gospel of Damascus is an eschatological novel that weaves sacred traditions to tell the story of eight angels who identify and prepare Yune Bukhari, a Damascene man born to a Christian mother and Muslim father, to be one of the successors to the Disciples of Christ. The preparation process is complex and entails spiritual and sensual experiences which Yune must successfully undergo. Guiding the preparation process are golden scrolls which can only be opened at very specific dates. The story appears to culminate on Christmas Eve 1999 when Yune, along with his co-disciples, believe Christ will return. Yune is shattered when Christ fails to descend on the White Tower east of Damascus. But thirty-three years later, the preparation of Yune is over and he is finally permitted to witness the event he had anticipated for so long. ( )

I enjoyed this book and would recommend to anyone. I will leave a more detailed review shortly. But give this author a try, you won't be disappointed. ( )

I read the first few chapters of this book and found the writing very irritating. It was wooden and "naive", ie it seemed like it was written by someone new to writing - maybe that was intentional to illustrate something about the "angel" writing the story from his perspective - but it didn't work for me. There was also a lot of information provided in sections that seemed disjointed from the narrative flow itself - information that came across as "teaching" me about the subjects. I have no problem being taught, but, to me, a good story should incorporate information in a seamless way.

Please remember that I have only read the first few chapters and given up on the book. So maybe it improved - I don't know. Make sure you read other reviews before choosing whether to read the book or not - or just read the book for yourself. But it just didn't work for me, I'm afraid.

It took me a very long time to finish this book, frankly without a long dull flight to Dublin and a cozy few hours in a pub I probably would never have finished it. While I found the interplay between the angels in this book fascinating I couldn't honestly say exactly what The Gospel of Damascus is about. Sadly the best parts of this book, for me, were the reactions I got from others when I tried to explain what I was reading and the satisfaction of finally being able to say, "Finished!" ( )