It is during this time that Ana first encounters Jesus. When she learns as a young teen that her parents have arranged for her to marry an older widower (primarily a business proposition to benefit the family), Ana does all she can to prevent the marriage from happening. Ana’s story revolves around the tension of her nature as a headstrong woman in a world that fundamentally prohibits female independence and rebelliousness. Marriage was expected, and women were the property of their fathers first, and then their husbands. We are reminded early in her story that women and girls of this time were required to be silent and were essentially invisible, with no real rights in society. The narrator is Ana herself, and the reader witnesses her development from a young girl with dreams and intellect to a woman who has a distinctly feminist point of view and acts upon her desires. Instead, the reader is taken on a journey of Ana’s life. If you are thinking this sounds like a romance novel with Jesus as the male actor, you would be wrong. The concept of Jesus as a married man requires the reader of this fascinating book immediately suspend any preconceived ideas of Jesus as a celibate deity and consider that he was a man with human desires. Meet Ana, the wife of Jesus, in Sue Monk Kidd’s latest work of fiction, The Book of Longings. Reviewed by Catherine Bailey The Book of Longings Book Cover
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