My Name Was Judas, by C K Stead

Alternative Gospels are becoming a genre in their own right. Here, C K Stead retells the life of Jesus from the perspective of Judas of Keraiyot, whose betrayal of Jesus is not a literal one but consists of the refusal to believe in Jesus's divinity: the main theme here is that of rationalism versus mysticism. It's an artful retelling. Jesus's miracles all have plausible psychological explanations, and there is a clever and convincing political explanation for the removal of His body from the tomb. As for the sightings of Jesus after death, isn't this a normal part of the grieving process?

Yet to cast Judas as the rationalist is not to cast him as a dry-as-dust sceptic, deaf to the beauty of Jesus's teachings. After all, he followed Jesus and it is made clear that he loved him. This is a novel of ideas, but it is also alive with a sense of felt experience: the love of one person for another, the taste of cool water on a hot day and the sight of bats in the moonlight are phenomena which do not need supernatural add-ons. They are quite miraculous enough in themselves.

Vintage £7.99