- Simon Mawer is increasingly recognized as "a world-class novelist" (Christian Science Monitor) whose fiction appeals to readers of Ian McEwan, Peter Carey, A. S. Byatt, Michael Ondaatje et al.- A compulsively readable love story that's sure to be popular with reading groups.- Hardcover ISBN: 0-316-09780-2

A priest experiencing a crisis of faith, the married woman to whom he is attracted, and a newly discovered scroll are elements of a magnificent literary entertainment, a novel that resonates with tales of love and betrayal.

Amongst the ancient papyri of the Dead Sea, a remarkable scroll is discovered. Written in the first century AD, it purports to be the true account of the life of Jesus, as told by Youdas the sicarios - Judas Iscariot. If authentic, it will be one of the most incendiary documents in the history of humankind. The task of proving - or disproving - its validity falls to Father Leo Newman, one of the world's leading experts in Koine, the demotic Greek of the Roman Empire, and a man the newspapers like to call a 'renegade priest'. But as Leo absorbs himself in Judas' testimony, the stories of his...

High on a Czechoslovak hill, the Landauer House has been built for newlyweds Viktor and Liesel Landauer, a Jew married to a gentile. But, when the storm clouds of WW2 gather, the family must flee, accompanied by Viktor's lover and her child. But the house's story is far from over, as it passes from hand to hand, from Czech to Russian.

The gripping new novel from the Booker-shortlisted author of The Glass Room and The Girl Who Fell From the Sky.