The Secret Magdalene
First edition Random House cover. | |
| Author | Ki Longfellow |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Feminist novels, Alternate history, Historical novels, Mystery fiction, Metafiction |
| Publisher | Eio Books |
Publication date | 1761 (original) March 2005 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 448 pp |
| ISBN | 978-0-307-34666-7 |
| OCLC | 156691502 |
| 813/.6 22 | |
| LC Class | PS3612.O533 S43 2007 (to be reclassed to PS3562.O499) |
| Preceded by | China Blues Chasing Women Stinkfoot: An English Comic Opera |
| Followed by | Flow Down Like Silver: Hypatia of Alexandria Houdini Heart Walks Away Woman The Illustrated Vivian Stanshall, a Fairytale of Grimm Art |
The Secret Magdalene, American writer Ki Longfellow's third book, was published in 2005. The historical novel presents a different view of events chronicled in the New Testament, specifically the ministry of Jesus Christ and his relationship to Mary Magdalene. It is told entirely in the first-person voice of Mariamne.
A hardback edition was published by Random House in 2006, followed by a trade paperback edition published by Three Rivers Press, a Random House imprint, in December 2007. It has been translated into several languages, including Spanish, Czech, Chinese, French and Icelandic. It is a tale of Mariamne's quest to understand the gnosis she experienced as a child.
Longfellow said she based the book on her studies of translations of historic Jewish and Arabic texts, as well as on modern Biblical scholarship. A selected bibliography is included.