BARABBAS

A projection of the aftermath of the Crucifixion and the universal agony of spiritual torment and disbelief in the story of Barabbas, the robber, who was released by Pilate so that Jesus might die. And to this story Par Lagerkvist, a Swedish poet and writer, lends a gaunt and sombre austerity, a stark dignity. In the years which follow his reprieve, Barabbas knows only an uneasy doubt and fear, is haunted by the specter of Golgotha, puzzled by the rapture and the reverence of a hare-lipped girl, who is stoned to death in the persecutions that follow. Later sentenced to the mines, Barabbas lives on in doubt until he is condemned as a Christian and in dying, is for the first time able to believe... Not a religious recapitulation at the popular level, this is a work of deep respect and controlled artistry, in a fine translation by Alan Blair.