Peter's daughter

Now and then

PETER'S DAUGHTER
By Helen Wilkinson
Stickleback Books (01743 718314). 288 pages. £6.99
ISBN 0 9543105 1 9

Peter's daughter is a most enjoyable novel. Two stories run side by side. One, is about Susannah, the imaginary daughter of Simon Peter, as she is caught up in the events of Jesus's life and ministry. The other, Ben, a disillusioned, atheistic archaeologist who stumbles across a shard of pottery, which leads him right back to first-century Palestine and also helps him deal with issues in his own chaotic life.

The characters are believable and the story lines gripping. Helen Wilkinson's writing makes life in Capernaum come wonderfully alive with vivid images. Ben, our modern day character, is well drawn, but a note of caution: do we need the 20th-century language in order to make him realistic?

The two stories mostly intertwine well and the author has been true to the gospel record, but she has embellished the facts. We don't know that Jesus had blue eyes - that is the difficulty with writing Christian fiction, enlarging the facts without confusing them. Yet this is a super book and I'm waiting eagerly for its successor.

Jan Tervet,
teacher, Colchester

© Evangelicals Now - August 2004
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