The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd

I love when books blow my mind. Sue Monk Kidd writes from the point of view of Ana, who she imagines could have been the wife of Jesus. Before his ministry, and after his birth in Bethlehem, we know very little about the historical Jesus. Kidd researches the times, and finds that it was unlikely that Jesus was not married, that there was a lot of pressure in his community to do so. One thread leads to another and the author imagines a Jesus who would have loved a strong, interesting woman. Ana is that. She is a rebel and longs for more than to be married off to a rich man for a political alliance. She has "longings" and she expresses those longings as a writer recording stories of women. Her need to write is like needing to breathe. Monk's storytelling is compelling, the weaving together of Jesus's ministry with the difficult life that Ana had. It is Ana's story though that is the backbone of the book.