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Damascus by Christos Tsiolkas

by
January–February 2020, no. 418

Damascus by Christos Tsiolkas

Allen & Unwin, $32.99 pb, 440 pp, 9781760875091

Damascus by Christos Tsiolkas

by
January–February 2020, no. 418

The man traditionally held to have written about half of the New Testament is variously known as Saul of Tarsus, Paul the Apostle, and St Paul. Initially an enthusiastic persecutor of the earliest Christians, he underwent a dramatic conversion shortly after the Crucifixion, and it is on this moment that his life, and Christos Tsiolkas’s new novel, both turn. Damascus covers the period 35–87 CE, from shortly before Paul’s conversion until twenty or more years after his death. This chronology is not straightforwardly linear, with an assortment of narrators recounting their personal experiences, at various times and from various points of view, of Christianity’s birth and spread amid the brutal realities of the Roman Empire.

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Comment (1)

  • Well done Kerryn Goldsworthy for articulating Christos Tsiolkas's motivation as a reimagining of Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus and his life as a witness to the light of God in our world. It is a challenging read in terms of the violence and cruelty, which is an all the more important illustration of just how radical Jesus teachings were and continue to be.
    Posted by Jenny Esots
    27 February 2020

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