Blurbed as "biblical fan fiction by a genius," I can only agree. Told as disparate, sometimes connecting chapters, this collection of stories that occur in the time of Jesus focuses on ancillary characters mentioned in the Bible, or imagined [others, including the soldiers who are sent to slaughter the Jewish babies born around the time of Jesus's birth; some of the disciples otherwise rarely mentioned in the Bible, such as Andrew; and his lover Anna, a woman who survives according to the men she is with; Jacob, a young man whose stuttering is "cured" by Jesus, and whose faith is challenged by doubt (and his stuttering returns); and members of a gang of thieves and murderers, whose path crosses Jesus's. Women are a special focus, as is the spirit of evil encompassed by a gray old man with gray eyes who is the shadow of everything and everyone, and who continues to reappear when faith is challenged. The setting and way of life, especially a nomadic life dependent upon strangers taking you in, were thoroughly described, bringing this era and geographic setting into sharp detail. A hard life it was. An original, fascinating read by someone who has obviously studied the Bible with diligence, yet without judgment or proclamations or need of faith, but need for the story, the story of their lives, the pattern discernible in those stories, and where they will lead. ( )