Testament

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

This probing, often cryptic examination of the life of the man known to
scholars and the faithful as Jesus of Nazareth provides a fresh look
through four intriguing first-person versions told by individuals who
knew “Yeshua” and claimed to be close to him.

Yihuda of Qiryat is a political fighter who shares the hope of many
contemporary Jews for a sovereign Jewish nation. His Yeshua is a
dignified man with a scraggly beard and boyish appearance. Miryam of
Migdal has traveled with Yeshua through Galilee and watched him
encouraging his listeners to question the teachings of the powerful.
Miryam, Yeshua’s mother, reveals his vulnerability and compassion.
Simon of Gergesa, a Syrian shepherd, had known Yeshua in his last days,
and his memories of the death and burial have become confused.

Nino Ricci is best known for Lives of the Saints, a book that won the
1990 Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction. Testament is long
and thoughtful. The styles, which vary slightly with each narrator, are
all strong and clear, and Ricci’s provocative topic is carried off
with panache.