Michaela Kolowski

She's both –

telling the story from their perspective, so from Anna's perspective or Yalta's perspective or many other women in the novel, but she's also imagining the story and the world from their perspective and she does that in quite a powerful way.

The parts of the novel where Anna and Jesus are together and

talking about what it means to believe in God or how spirit manifests, I found very beautiful and very moving.

But as soon as Jesus, because the book actually does, it does actually follow the same, I suppose, you know, dogmatic or religious arcs, except for the having a wife part, that people would be familiar with, which is that Jesus becomes more and more taken up with the terrible corruption in the temple and he becomes more concerned with preaching and he travels around

the countryside preaching to people and amasses followers.

And I guess the shame from a structural perspective is that when that happens, Anna is left out of that journey.

So some of the most engaging parts of the novel I felt were Anna's sort of coming to life, her decision to make sure that she can chronicle other women's stories and to find her own voice, to write and keep her own stories alive, which is very beautiful.

but also the way in which she comes to understand and view the world through her relationship with her husband, who is Jesus.

But when Sue Monk Kidd separates them by necessity, we don't hear about Jesus' story.

He's kind of offstage, if you will.

And I found myself kind of yearning to see that story through Sue Monk Kidd's eyes.

I think it's useful to say at this point that Sue Monk Kidd, in terms of her background, she is herself a Christian.

She was born in Georgia in the south of the USA.

And one of her books, I think it was a 1996 book, is called The Dance of a Dissident Daughter.

And in that book, she's really describing her own journey into feminist theology.

And it was a memoir that had a hugely groundbreaking effect within religious circles.

So this is not new territory for Sue Monk Kidd.

And I think from interviews with her, she said that

she was interested in this idea a long time before she wrote it.