The Secret Magdalene

Raised like sisters, Mariamne and Salome are indulged with riches, position, and learning-a rare thing for females in Jerusalem. But Mariamne has a further gift: an illness has left her with visions; she has the power of prophecy. It is her prophesying that drives the two girls to flee to Egypt, where they study philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy in the Great Library of Alexandria.

After seven years they return to a Judaea where many now believe John the Baptizer is the messiah. Salome too begins to believe, but Mariamne, now called Magdalene, is drawn to his cousin, Yeshu’a, a man touched by the divine in the same way she was during her days of illness. Together they speak of sharing their direct experience of God; but Yeshu’a unexpectedly gains a reputation as a healer, and as the ill and the troubled flock to him, he and Magdalene are forced to make a terrible decision.

This radical retelling of the greatest story ever told brings Mary Magdalene to life-not as a prostitute or demon-possessed-but as an educated woman who was truly the “apostle to the apostles.”

Detailed, poetic, and fully human, this is a thrilling novel, a powerful evocation of a Mary Magdalene who was in her own right a philosopher, a traveler, a teacher, and a prophet. This Mary Magdalene was much more than a wife, much more than a favored follower, more even than the Beloved Disciple. Mariamne Magdal-eder "knew the All."

And while the popular view of the Magdalene has lately begun to change its shape from repentant sinner to Beloved Disciple, few speak of what "knowing the All" actually means.

KNOWING THE ALL is the heart of the Christ's original Gnostic teaching. It was the Apostle Paul's message, his "revelation of the Lord" that blinded him on the road to "Damascus." It was the very heart of early Christianity.

Still beating, Gnosis, or "knowing," was cut out of the body of the Church more than sixteen hundred years ago-and was then buried so deeply and for so long, all involved lived and died in the belief it could never come again. But it has. With the discovery in 1945 of the Nag Hammadi scrolls, perhaps the last of their kind, Mary Magdalene has returned to us in the full splendor of her original form.

The Secret Magdalene is not only a painstakingly researched portrait of a great woman who was wise beyond her time and her place, it is a portrait of the search for GNOSIS-the individual's direct experience of God.

Publishers Weekly

Vermont novelist Longfellow (China Blues; Chasing Women) places Mary Magdalene at the center of the origin of Christian thought. As this vividly imagined novel opens, "Mariamne," the daughter of a wealthy Jewish aristocrat, is a gifted child with a love of learning who hears prophetic voices. Because privileged girls in Jerusalem are not raised to be scholars, Mariamne must indulge her passion in secret, accompanied by her slave, Tata, and her father's ward, Salome. Mariamne and Salome eventually run away to Alexandria, where they study in the great library, and into the wilderness, where Salome devotes herself to John the Baptizer. Meanwhile, Mariamne is drawn to Yeshu (Jesus), with whom she shares a brief earthly love and prolonged discussions of gnosis-the experience of direct personal insight into the divine. Together, they envision the events that lead to the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Reimagining such famous episodes as the healing of Lazarus, the wedding at Cana and Judas's betrayal, Longfellow sees Yeshu and his apostles from a feminist perspective. Longfellow (who first published this novel in 2005 at a small startup press named for Mariamne's donkey, Eio) is more passionate about research and philosophy than plot or character. Readers looking for a fast-paced thriller will be disappointed. (Mar.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Under the name Pamela Longfellow, Ki Longfellow has published two novels, one of which - CHINA BLUES (HarperCollins/Doubleday) - went into auction. China Blues was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection in Canada and a best seller in Sweden. Her second novel, CHASING WOMEN (HarperCollins), has been made into a Hollywood screenplay - twice.  Her third novel, WALKS AWAY WOMAN (Eio Books) is scheduled for publication in the summer of 2005. By now, her work is available in six languages: Spanish, Swedish, Hebrew, English, German, and Czech.  Last year, the celebratory script of her "comic opera" was published by Sea Urchin Press in Holland. Called STINKFOOT, she co-wrote it with her husband, the late Vivian Stanshall, lead singer and songwriter of England's very beloved Bonzo Dog Band. STINKFOOT was produced twice:

once for Ki's showboat in Bristol's Floating Harbour, England, and once for London's West End. The show garnered glowing national reviews in the Times, the Guardian, and the Inpendent. She's also written for Cream Magazine, Ms Magazine, and Rolling Stone.

Ki is half French and half Iroquois Indian, and has never stopped traveling, learning...writing. The Secret Magdalene took seven years to research and two to write.