The Book of Longing

Title: The Book of Longing
Author: Sue Monk Kidd
Reviewer: Nadia Kammies
​I loved both Sue Monk Kidd’s previous novels, New York Times bestsellers, The Secret Life of Bees and The Invention of Wings. This latest work that envisages the life of the wife of Jesus, if he had been married, follows along similar themes of female oppression, empowerment and the feminine divine. Set in Palestine and Egypt in the first century, the book reimagines the New Testament from the perspective of Ana who secretly writes the narratives of the neglected women of the 

Old Testament.
Ana’s deepest longing is to be a voice for women, an intention she sets for herself in an incantation bowl. This is revolutionary during a time and culture where women are betrothed and married with little control over their lives.
Ana also speaks for the women around her, like her aunt, Yaltha, accused of killing her husband, and her friend Tabitha, who brings shame on her family by publicly accusing the Roman soldier who raped her. Her friend’s tongue is removed for speaking out and thus “bringing shame on her father and his house”, a punishment written in the Scriptures.
These traditions that objectify women predate Christianity and Islam but continue to resonate and impact women’s rights and their role in society today. Ana realises that her stories are replete with brutality, and therefore need to be protected from those who would silence them. The power of her words is encapsulated in the comment by Jesus after he reads one of her texts,
Your story caused your aunt’s suffering to lift off the papyrus and enter inside of me. I felt her suffering as my own and she was made new to me.
This validates Ana’s drive to write. I think every pain in the world wants to be witnessed, she tells Tabitha. Through Ana, the author invests herself in the silenced stories and erasures of women on the margins of history. This book reminded me of another NY Times Bestseller, The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, that narrates the story of Dinah from the Book of Genesis, the only daughter of Jacob.
The Book of Longings is a love story but its focus is on Ana while the events surrounding her husband’s life unfold in the background. The ability of women to gain strength from one another and from within themselves is very much a theme running throughout and is especially relevant in the context of the #MeToo movement.
The author’s note provides insight into her justification for imagining Ana. If she had lived, as it is likely that she well might have given the cultural and traditional importance of marriage in society at the time, why was she erased? Did celibacy render Jesus more spiritual? The author challenges us to imagine what was possible when the invisibility of women was real, and holds up a mirror to our society today, in much the same way that her character does for her time.