In its earliest years-- in scattered, fractious, scant communities-- how close did nascent Christianity come to extinction? Among thousands of competing theologies, how did the first Christians make themselves heard convincingly? Or, as Niall Williams asks, "What was John [the Apostle] doing the day before he wrote the gospel?"

In this powerful novel of beginnings and unforeseen consequences, we find vividly imagined the Mediterranean world in which the first followers of Christ struggled to survive both spiritually and physically. Here is the exile of one such group to the harsh remote island of Patmos, where "the plate of the earth itself seems borne upward toward the sun", and here is their tumultuous sojourn in Ephesus, mercantile crossroads of empire where "men call out for custom, promise reward, promise the favor of God, promise a place at the right hand... All is clamor." Williams' prose often rises to the ecstatic, as in this description of the disciples' sea voyage from Patmos back to the mainland:

...as far as the furthest ripple they have left in the sea, is this gleaming arrow of fish. It comes in their afterwaters catching light, then shadow, then light again... the fish follow, a silent suite, opaque as souls, profound as mystery. Such might last a moment, might in ordinary fish life be the happenstance of tide and timing, a brief meeting of man and creature in the sea hectic, but this is something other. The fish follow. While the disciples pray, bowed in the boat, the multitudinous school swims after and grows greater until it seems a portion of light itself fallen from above and by means unknown attached to this strange cargo of Christians.

At the still center of the narrative is the Apostle John, "the disciple whom Jesus loved," who, at almost a hundred years of age, is trying to keep his small community of believers from splintering, and who, like his Master, finds to his sorrow that he has nourished a viper in his bosom. Williams both confounds and confronts expectations of the miraculous, revealing in the story of this tenacious man and his wavering cadre how faith can winnow real from false, and surprise the miracle itself where it actually exists.

In the tradition of Jim Crace’s Quarantine and Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent, John is a stunning, lyrical reimagining of John the Apostle in the final years of his life, by the critically acclaimed and bestselling author of Four Letters of Love.

At a time when Americans remain skeptical about religion but still thirst for spiritual fulfillment, Niall Williams’s extraordinary and masterful new novel reveals a universally appealing message of hope and love.

In the years following the death of Jesus Christ, John the Apostle, now a frail, blind old man, lives in forced exile on the desolate island of Patmos with a small group of his disciples. Together, the group has endured their banishment, but after years awaiting Christ’s return, fissures form within their faith, and, inevitably, one of John’s followers disavows Christ’s divinity and breaks away from the community, threatening to change the course of Christianity. When the Roman emperor lifts the banishment of Christians, John and his followers are permitted to return to Ephesus, a chaotic world of competing religious sects where Christianity is in danger of vanishing. It is against this turbulent background—and inspired by Jesus’s radical message of love and forgiveness—that John comes to dictate his Gospel.

Immensely impressive—and based on actual historical events—John is at once an ambitious and provocative reimagining of the last surviving apostle and a powerful look at faith and how it lives and dies in the hearts of men.

In "John" ($25, Bloomsbury). Irish author Niall Williams spent four years researching the last days of John the Apostle. He used that information as the structure for a novel about what a frail, blind John and his followers might have done during their exile to an island and return to a world of religious sects. What if this John was the one to have written the gospel of John? What would be the invariable clashes between faith and doubt under stress? Williams' lyrical writing and sense of place is a plus although there are a few times when a reader might just want to move on a little more quickly.—The Olympian

“ Readership is guaranteed where biblical sagas like The Red Tent (1997) and Pilate’s Wife (2006) enjoyed popular success.”—Booklist

"Irish novelist Williams takes spiritual issues seriously—and continues to write compellingly about them."—Kirkus Reviews

"Plenty of imagination and occasionally grandiloquent prose….beautifully portrays the Christ-followers’ loneliness as they yearn for the return of their Messiah….fresh and elegant….This novel will appeal to readers who like imaginative and gritty sagas of the lives of key Christians in the early church as well as those who value lyricism." —Publishers Weekly

Niall Williams was born in Dublin. He is a playwright and the author of Four Letters of Love, As It Is in Heaven, The Fall of Light, and Only Say the Word. He lives in County Clare with his wife, Christine, and their two children.

Imprint: Bloomsbury USA
Distributor: MPS
Publication Date: 02-05-2008
Pages: 288
Measurements: 9.25in X 6.13in