British novelist Jeffrey Archer, renowned for penning a string of best-selling thrillers, has written the Gospel according to Judas Iscariot in a bid to throw new light on Christendom’s most reviled betrayer.
“It is a gospel, not a short story and not a novel. It is 22,000 words in length,” Archer told Reuters in an interview on Sunday announcing the book’s worldwide publication on March 22.
“We don’t have him dying which is a crucial part of the story,” Archer said of Judas who is said to have betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver and then hanged himself in shame.
“The Gospel According to Judas” is penned in the hand of his son Benjamin Iscariot, with the authors using Christianity’s core, canonical texts as their point of reference.
This follows last year’s reappearance of a long-lost Christian text:
In April, a 1,700-year-old copy of the “Gospel of Judas” was unveiled in Washington. It said Judas acted on Jesus’ request in turning him over to the authorities because he was the only disciple in Jesus’ inner circle who understood his desire to shed his earthly body.
Link to the Yahoo! News article
The Independent recently put up a review of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It came out in the US some time ago, but was released in the United Kingdom in hardcover today (with a fresh cover). Here’s an excerpt: