What if Jesus had a wife? Sue Monk Kidd takes the somewhat daring proposition of imagining that to have been the case. She writes the book through the wife's eyes. Ana is a strong individual who can read, write, and compose verse. She is not presented as a follower of Jesus, but as someone who thoroughly loves him and complements him. Many of the plot turns in the book correspond to the speculations of religious scholars, but as Sue Monk Kidd freely admits, there is no way to know for sure if these items are true. Still, she leads us on a fun trail of imagination.

Sue Monk Kidd expertly weaves a tale of love, lost, and finding oneself that is timeless. Patrons may hesitate to embrace this title but historical and spiritual fiction lovers will not be disappointed.

What an amazing book! I was a little reluctant to read it - worried about the subject matter being handled lightly. But, what a nice surprise. This was a great story, well written and compelling. I really enjoyed it.

“I am Ana. I was the wife of Jesus of Nazareth. I am a voice.”

I loved The Invention Of Wings and I will admit to being a lil skeptical about the subject being about Jesus’s life. I’m so glad I didn’t let that deter me from giving this a chance. I was expecting biblical Jesus, however, Kidd came at this novel from a totally human perspective. Through his wife’s voice. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with the concept of Jesus having a wife this novel tells how it is entirely possible that he did. It was realistically and thoughtfully told per the time period. I appreciate Kidd’s explanations for the choices she made in making the story told from Ana’s POV. Her ‘voice’ is one that I will not forget. This would make for a great book club pick. A must read!

I requested this book because I enjoyed The Secret Life of Bees, also by Sue Monk Kidd. I usually read contemporary or speculative fiction and was unsure if I would enjoy a book set two thousand years ago, about a woman who married and loved Jesus Christ. I’m so glad I took a chance on this because Ana’s story is powerful, moving, and will stay with me for a long time.

Ana is a young girl from a wealthy family, who wants to be a writer. She’s intelligent, impulsive, passionate, and has the soul of a poet. Without breaking down the plot, she falls in love with and marries Jesus of Nazarene. They are ultimately separated by Jesus’s calling to his ministry and by political events that keep Ana away from him for years. She risks her life to get back to Jesus, only to arrive as he’s arrested and crucified.

This is a story about the strength of women. Ana is a powerful, memorable character in her own right - but is supported and loved by so many other women, who help shape the novel. It was not a liberating period to be a woman - yet their sisterhood and bonds help liberate and lift up each other in love.

In another writer’s hands, this story could have been clunky, preachy, or just poorly drawn. Instead, it’s a rich, moving tribute to a woman who’s deepest desire is that her writing and voice outlive her. If Jesus really had married, and the author’s note explains that it’s possible he did, then his wife would have been silenced and erased by history. The Book of Longings gives Ana a voice - and it’s one that will stay with readers for a long time.

If you had asked my level of interest in reading biblical fiction I would have said it was virtually nonexistent. But still, the description of The Book of Longings book caught my interest and I'm so glad I read it. Sue Monk Kidd did a beautiful job telling the story of Ana, the imagined wife of Jesus. The book is full of strong and powerful women who lived in a time where women were largely overlooked and always undervalued. The female characters were given such thought and consideration, and most importantly, a voice.

A dramatic and fiercely feminist bit of historical fiction. Sue Monk Kidd inserts a remarkable character into the life of Jesus Christ — a wife named Ana. This is Ana’s story, however, not his. From childhood, the secret longing of this determined and deeply intelligent girl has been to have a Voice. Beginning with writing the stories of the matriarchs of the bible, she continues throughout her life to document the stories of forgotten and neglected women everywhere.

I was completely pulled in to the story. The historical context is rich with detail and insight into both the lives of individuals and the social and political currents of the time. Full sensory descriptions of Ana’s writing — the scrolls, inks and pens; the libraries and codices; the requisite hiding places; and the rare and tenuous gift that she had been allowed, as a woman, to learn to read and write at all. As we go through her life, we experience the inspiration for her writings and read samples as well. I was fascinated to learn that one such sample — Thunder: Perfect Mind — was an actual text unearthed from the 1942 Nag Hammadi excavation and dated to the time of the story.

There is plenty of drama — Ana’s father Matthias is the chief scribe and advisor to Herod Antipas; her adopted brother is Judas; and she meets and marries Jesus — but the actual story was far more political than spiritual … and I appreciated the historical depiction unencumbered by later religious trappings. As an aside, I loved the description of life in Therapeutae — an actual community of Jewish philosophers in Alexandria.

While Sue Monk Kidd’s style is often a little too emotional for me, I was completely drawn into this story of a strong woman insisting on her own voice — in some ways relegating the “greatest story ever told” to a mere influence. This book managed to completely shift my perspective on a period of time I knew little about.

This was one of the most amazing books that I've ever read.

I was anticipating a novel about how Jesus' wife bickered with the disciples and that's why they wrote her out of history. In fact, that preconception put me off the novel for a bit because I felt like that story has been told already. This wasn't that at all.

Ana was a Jewish woman who fought with her desire to be a voice--to create art and have an impact on the world beyond the domestic realm. Her relationship with Jesus was a partnership in which each of them respected that the other had a calling. As my daughter would say, they are such goals.

Ana struggles within the confines of society in which every male family member controls her life and even Jesus, who recognized her desire to create, prioritized his calling over hers. With outside knowledge, that may seem reasonable, but within the context of the narrative, his special relationship with God isn't seen as so unusual or so special to be given precedence over anyone else's. Despite that, her love of Jesus remains unwavering, as does his of Ana.

This was a novel that grasped me when I started reading it and did not let me go until I finished. I found myself thinking about it and researching different topics to have a fuller understanding of historical Jesus and the social mores of 1st century Judea.

Spoiler alert: He dies at the end.

Sue Monk Kidd writes so beautifully bas her other book this one drew me in .We are introducied to Anna who we learn is the wife of Jesus.Ana is strong a woman who knows her own mind.Thanks to the author this story flows full of history and interesting characters.#netgalley#penguinviking

Not being Christian, I wasn't sure if this was a book that I would going to really be able to relate to or find interest in. But, having been brought up in the faith, I found the historical aspect very well done, with the authors own take on what Jesus' life might have been like for all we know.

I have been a fan of this author's work since Secret Life of Bees, and this story did not disappoint.

This novel undertakes--and succeeds in-- a retelling of the life of Jesus and his time through the eyes of Ana who became his wife. From an early age Ana yearned to write to express the largeness and longing in her heart, but her family and the expectations of the time squelched her abilities. The marriages that were arranged for her were abhorrent, but when they were aborted she was shamed and ostracized from society. Her brother Judas came to her rescue, and after she met Jesus she knew that her destiny was with him. The deplorable conditions and malevolent characters were offset by the kindness of other people in Ana's life. Of course, from the beginning we know how the story ends, but it's nonetheless fascinating to read what seems to be an accurate portrait of life from 16-60 CE and to imagine the story behind the Gospels.

I liked the setting of this story very much and it is well written, but I have mixed feelings about it. Parts of the story I liked, but others not so much. I just didn't completely connect with it.

The Book of Longings is the story of Ana, wife of Jesus. Through meticulous research and attention to historic detail, Sue Monk Kidd gives us an expertly imagined and crafted story of what might have been if Jesus had been married. Ana is young, impetuous, intelligent and bound by the conventions of the first century that rankle and strangle her youthful spirit. She wishes to learn, to write, to find her most authentic voice and be whom SHE would like to be. Her expectations far outreach the limitations women lived under during that time but her story is every woman's story - how we love, befriend others, care for family, are a wife, suffer abuse - both physical and verbal, how we long to be more and use our voices to reach out and be more! While we journey with Ana from Nazareth and Jerusalem in Galilee to Alexandria in Egypt, we live our contemporary journey too - where we live and what we endure. Still, we struggle with finding our voices and using them to advocate for change but this story, Ana's story, will give you strength to find your voice too. Spectacular read, 5 enthusiastic stars!

This is beautifully written. A great story imagining if Jesus had a wife. This is the story of Ana, not Jesus, though sometimes they intertwine. As Kidd explains in the author's notes, though, this is Jesus as wholly human. No mention of his divinity, so if you go into it expecting that, you'll miss out. Great read. Ana is a wonderful character.

This book is predictably well written given its authorship. What I did not expect was to find new connections to a tradition I have all but left behind. The familiarity of the biblical references was comforting after years of avoiding scriptures I studied for so long. I appreciated the research that clearly went into depicting Ana's surroundings. The balance of intimacy and solitude that was portrayed in this woman was solace to a soul that sees culture unwilling to accept both in its stories and literature.

While reading the first sentence of The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd, I knew this was going to be an experience. One just knows when you are reading an author of incredible talent! This story of Ana, The wife of Jesus, is fantastic and fantastical. I was so completely swept up in the story, I couldn’t put the book down. From the misfortune that she had to endure with her parents, to watching her friend Tabitha suffer, to her father planning on giving her away for another mans’ pleasure and of course the crucifixion of her husband...well, this was one incredibly strong woman! Even though Ms. Kidd states this is a fictional work, I would love for it to have been true. Ana was a hero, particularly in that time when women were treated like men’s possessions. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Publishing for the egalley. I will think about this story for a very long time. And special thanks and kudos to the talented Sue Monk Kidd for her brilliant and eloquent storytelling.

A stunning new novel by author Sue Monk Kidd follows the life of Ana, the wife of Jesus, in her attempts to find her own voice in the confines of a world ruled by men. Kidd is a master wordsmith who captures the life of simple but complex life of the main character. Book clubs will be fascinated by the layers and nuances in this masterpiece of historical fiction.

I Enjoyed this book, but not as much as her others. Good story with well developed characters, but not what I wanted to read right at the moment. I will give it another try later

I am of two minds about this book. It is divided into sections based on divisions in the character's life and her location. The first one, in which she is a young woman (teens), I found pretty dismal. The language felt stilted, although that was probably an attempt to give a historical feel. However, to people living in any time, their language is natural and this device felt like artifice and a barrier to embracing the narrator's reality. Most characters were introduced without much nuance- they were good or they were evil. A few historical notes rang false as well. Why would it be odd that a woman in her 40s looked old? The average life expectancy was lower in biblical times and living conditions would have been harsh. Why would the fictionalized character of Jesus not be called Joshua or Yeshua? Everyone else went by either their Hebrew names or an anglicized version of the their names. Jesus is the Greek version of that name. I also found it odd to assign modern female sensibilities about women's roles, rights, lives, etc. to a character who would be very unlikely to have these thoughts. We are creatures of our times; ignoring that takes the reader out of the story.
Good news: as the plot advances, so does the quality of the writing and the appeal of the novel. I liked very much how the author embraced the "fully human" Messiah story. I thought she did that well. It was also interesting to read about Alexandria's history.

I love Sue Monk Kidd and had very high hopes for this novel. It did not let me down. Don't let the religion aspect affect you in any way. I'm not religious, but got so much out of this book!