Dawn of Grace: Mary Magdalene’s Story

This riveting historical reaches into the pages of the New Testament to reimagine the life of Mary Magdalene. Smith (The Ark and the Dove) paints Mary as a fragile young woman whose mother died young and who is raised mostly by servants while her father tends to his business. When he fails to return from a trip, Mary’s best friend Susanna—who’s possessed by demons—urges her to summon spirits that might help find him. A desperate Mary agrees but regrets it when the spirits of multiple dead family members refuse to leave her. Wracked by anxiety, she hides evidence of her possession long enough to go through with an arranged marriage but her husband discovers the truth and banishes her. When he dies a few years later, a friend invites Mary and Susanna to come on a trip to see a new preacher named Jesus in hopes they might be healed by him. From there, the narrative chronicles Jesus’s public ministry, death, and resurrection through Mary’s eyes. Smith gets especially inventive in crafting Mary’s childhood and young adulthood, about which little is known—her demonic possession is powerfully rendered. The result is a sharp and nuanced take on the murky life of a biblical figure and the volatile period in which she lived. Readers will be spellbound. (Feb.)