The Ironsmith
Noah is a pious Galilean ironsmith whose cousin Joshua, a carpenter, begins preaching a dangerous message after the death of John the Baptist. Noah, a widower, is in a position to know that one of the tetrarch’s men, a disgraced temple priest, will stop at nothing short of torture and crucifixion to silence such revolutionaries. Nicholas Guild learned his chops writing about the Assyrians, and what he writes are justly called thrillers. Certainly that is what this novel becomes as we root for Noah to win the girl and save his cousin, even at the cost of his own life.
This view of the Gospels from the voice of someone who seems made of flesh and blood but who isn’t named or sanctified gave more reality to the texts for me, the reality of someone who has no interest in becoming a Christian, but simply wants to see justice done. Plot and fictional characters lose our interest as the inevitable ending approaches, but I for one am always fascinated by different takes on the world’s great religious figures.
