Through their devoted personal slave, they also learn worldly experience far beyond anything Josephus, a member of the elite Jewish Sanhedrin (court), would approve. Raised like sisters and indulged by a fond father with books and lessons usually only accorded boys, Mariamne and Salome possess a thirst for knowledge, both secular and magical, that is forbidden to females. When she revives, she is gifted (or cursed) with unexpected voiced divination. Mariamne has just recovered from a life-threatening illness.

Both girls are overseen by a body servant named Tata. Also living with them is her father's Egyptian ward, Salome, the daughter of a deceased fellow merchant. The story begins in the voice of the Jewess Mariamne as a child living a privileged life in her widowed father Josephus' home in Jerusalem. Longfellow said she based the book on her studies of translations of historic Jewish and Arabic texts, as well as on modern Biblical scholarship. It is a tale of Mariamne's quest to understand the gnosis she experienced as a child. It has been translated into several languages, including Spanish, Czech, Chinese, French and Icelandic.

It is told entirely in the first-person voice of Mariamne.Ī hardback edition was published by Random House in 2006, followed by a trade paperback edition published by Three Rivers Press, a Random House imprint, in December 2007. The historical novel presents a different view of events chronicled in the New Testament, specifically the ministry of Jesus Christ and his relationship to Mary Magdalene.

The Secret Magdalene, American writer Ki Longfellow's third book, was published in 2005. The Illustrated Vivian Stanshall, a Fairytale of Grimm Art PS3612.O5 (to be reclassed to PS3562.O499)įlow Down Like Silver: Hypatia of Alexandria

China Blues by Ki Longfellow