The Transmigrant

Written by Kristi Saare Duarte
Review by Viviane Crystal

Uneducated but passionate with love for God, the young Jesus yearns to be a teacher, a Rabbi, to touch others with the oneness he knows with the Divine. But he is the son of Joseph, a talented carpenter, and is expected to sit in silence and learn from those teachers wiser than he is. His questions and comments only inflame his family and neighbors. After meeting a monk who tells him that anyone can be a monk and teacher, Jesus begins the journey of his so-called “lost years.” Traveling through Asia, Jesus learns and practices the teachings of various sects of Buddhism and Hinduism.

The outstanding features of this account focus on the coming-of-age of Jesus, as he confronts his all-too-human desires and foibles, learns to transcend them, falls back into them, and believes that he has a unique understanding because of these valuable spiritual lessons. The reader will be left with complex questions: How does Jesus live in Oneness with all but be so misunderstood and rejected by those who call themselves knowledgeable and righteous? Why cannot that Spirit of Oneness that Jesus learns penetrate past the hardest hearts who reject him?

Kristi Saare Duarte has written an account that is very human and divine in nature, in moving language that provokes both conversation and meditation. The Jesus she depicts is at home everywhere and nowhere, a man who finds comfort only in God and in sharing that wealth throughout his brief passage into the hearts and spirits of humanity. Well-researched, focused, credible and inspirational historical fiction!