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IN THE YEARS OF THE LORD by Manuel Komroff

IN THE YEARS OF THE LORD

By

Publisher: Harper

This should appeal to the market Sholem Asch discovered with The Nazarene, for Komroff has retold the gospel story with equal vividness and sense of drama, and with a new approach, which he develops in convincing enough manner. He has tied together some loose threads, he has followed through -- cause and effect -- and made it convincing. A rich canvas,- the courts, the race course, the streets of Jerusalem. He identifies the rich merchant encountered by the Wise Men with the father of Lazarus and Marth and Mary, and makes him the instrument of good will in helping the Holy Family in their escape to Egypt. One gets a sense of Jesus through the people he helps, -- the lepers, the man healed at the pool of Bethesda, the disciples, and many others. The story spans the whole period from the visit of the kings from the East to the resurrection. Komroff has taken full advantage of the material, and his story never lags from sense of familiarity. I found it absorbingly interesting reading, though not wholly canonical.