Sed

The Testament according to Jesus Christ. Or the Testament according to Amélie Nothomb. The Belgian novelist dares to give voice to the protagonist and it is Jesus himself who tells us about his Passion. On these pages appear Pontius Pilate, the disciples of Christ, the traitor Judas, Mary Magdalene, the miracles, the crucifixion, death and resurrection, Jesus' conversations with his divine father... Characters and situations that are known to all, but those that are given a twist here: we are told with a modern look, a lyrical and philosophical tone with touches of humor. Jesus speaks to us about the soul and eternal life, but also about the body and the here and now; of the transcendental, but also of the mundane. And a visionary and thoughtful character emerges who knows love, desire, faith, pain, disappointment and doubt. This novel reinterprets and humanizes a historical figure with a look that is perhaps transgressive, perhaps iconoclastic, but that does not at all seek provocation for provocation or easy scandal. A sacrilege, a blasphemy? Simply literature, and a good one, with the strength and capacity for seduction to which Amélie Nothomb has us well accustomed. If in some previous books the author played to rework fables and old fairy tales with a contemporary touch, here she dares neither more nor less than with Sacred History. And his very human Jesus Christ will not leave anyone indifferent.