On the Road to Damascus
Connolly follows up his excellent debut The Good Thief with this sequel, which moves forward the story set in first century Galilee. The new book – which is as elegantly designed as its predecessor and can easily be read independently of it – starts in AD 33 in the months following the crucifixion of Jesus and traces the embryonic growth of the new Christian religion. A systematic persecution of this new sect is organized by the Temple in Jerusalem and spearheaded (as the book’s title suggests) by “a zealous young scholar” named Saul of Tarsus. Fleeing this wave of persecution is a young woman named Rebekah and a Roman centurion named Lucius, and as the narrative follows their wanderings, Connolly is able to work into his narrative extensive but unobtrusive research – about the society of Jerusalem, the Roman port city of Ostia, and everything in between.
Rebekah and Lucius are warmly-drawn characters, as are the Romans they encounter along their journey – indeed, despite the provincial setting of the story, the Roman aspects of it are its most enjoyable – and the thread running through the whole narrative, the thread of Christianity’s beginnings through the desperate courage of its earliest believers, binds everything together understatedly and gracefully.
The book will most please believing Christians, but even secular readers will enjoy this simple, effective story.