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HIM

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HIM

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Overview

The long-awaited new book from multi-award winner Geoff Ryman

An extraordinary science-fiction novel about identity, divinity and alternate reality – the story of the son of God.

“Women, of course, can not be sons of God,”

In the village of Nazareth, virgin Maryam and the wife of Yosef barLevi gives birth to a miracle: a little girl. She is named Avigayil, after her grandmother.

But as Avigayil grows, it’s clear she believes that she is destined to be someone greater than just the daughter of Maryam. From leading a gang of village boys to challenging the priests in the temple, Avigayil is determined to find her way as Yeshu, a man.

Yeshu can work miracles. He can see futures. He can speak for God.
A gripping, thoughtful sci-fi novel, tackling family, the multiverse and the survival of love through immense change and crisis.

File Under: Science Fiction [ The Greatest Story Never Told | Child of The Faith | Apocrypha | Herstory ]

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781915202673
Publisher:	Watkins Media
Publication date:	12/05/2023
Pages:	376
Sales rank:	153,873
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Canadian-born Geoff Ryman is one of the most innovative and acclaimed authors writing in Fantasy and SF. A multi-award winner, his sensitive and artful SF novels, including WAS, AIR and THE CHILD GARDEN, have explored the AIDS epidemic, the coming of the Cloud based internet and the history of Cambodia. His 1998 novel, 253, was a groundbreaking digital hypertext. As well as writing novels he led the teams that built the websites for the British Monarchy and Number 10. He also had a leading role designing the UK government’s www.direct.gov.uk site.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"HIM feels like the real story at last. Ryman’s uncanny ability to get inside people makes this one of the greatest versions of the old story. The family drama, Yeshua’s parents and siblings—all the key moments seen as if by lightening—it comes alive in a supremely vivid way. This time for real. It’s unforgettable."
– Kim Stanley Robinson, award winning author of The Mars Trilogy

"Here is the Son of God you never knew. HIM is shocking, moving, profound and reverent. Only Geoff Ryman could have written this book. It is a masterpiece."
– Michael Swanwick, Nebula award-winning author of Stations of the Tide

"Ryman challenges his readers as he always has, with an enormous, defiant, heart. HIM is exhilarating and liberating to believer and non-believer alike."
– Paul Cornell, author and screenwriter

“Ryman offers an exceptional journey into the heart of human experience with this profoundly affecting story. Beautifully imagined. It has a transformative, compassionate power. I loved it.”
– Justina Robson, award nominated author Silver Screen

“Potentially blasphemous, definitely thought-provoking. Ryman asks a simple question and supplies a complex, multifaceted answer that stays with you long after you finish reading.”
– Antony Johnston, creator of Atomic Blonde

From the B&N Reads Blog

Page 1 of

Editorial Reviews

12/18/2023
Ryman (The Warrior Who Carried Life) does a remarkable job of telling anew the story of Jesus of Nazareth. The tale starts familiarly enough with Maryam announcing that she is with child “in an unusual way.” She’s married off to Yosef and the pair are exiled from Jerusalem. Ryman follows Maryam through her child’s life, much of which is familiar. Ryman’s Yehush, however, differs radically from the Jesus of the Gospels in two important respects. First, and more immediately startling, this Yehush was assigned female at birth, but begins identifying as a boy and calling himself Yehush after their older playmate by that same name dies. What follows may resonate with parents of trans children as Maryam comes to terms with the change. The second difference is that Ryman imagines the vastness of a Creator who willed into being not just a single planet but the entire spacetime continuum and the multiverse beyond. His Yehush attempts to simultaneously embody God and convey his and God’s broad view of time and space to the people of first-century Judea. Ryman does an impressive job portraying his protagonist’s arduous and complicated existence. Readers willing to have their preconceptions challenged will find much to savor and ponder in this unique work. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"HIM feels like the real story at last. Ryman’s uncanny ability to get inside people makes this one of the greatest versions of the old story. The family drama, Yeshua’s parents and siblings—all the key moments seen as if by lightening—it comes alive in a supremely vivid way. This time for real. It’s unforgettable."
– Kim Stanley Robinson, award winning author of The Mars Trilogy

"Ryman does an impressive job portraying his protagonist’s arduous and complicated existence. Readers willing to have their preconceptions challenged will find much to savor and ponder in this unique work."
– Publishers Weekly

"Here is the Son of God you never knew. HIM is shocking, moving, profound and reverent. Only Geoff Ryman could have written this book. It is a masterpiece."
– Michael Swanwick, Nebula award-winning author of Stations of the Tide

"Ryman challenges his readers as he always has, with an enormous, defiant, heart. HIM is exhilarating and liberating to believer and non-believer alike."
– Paul Cornell, author and screenwriter

“Ryman offers an exceptional journey into the heart of human experience with this profoundly affecting story. Beautifully imagined. It has a transformative, compassionate power. I loved it.”
– Justina Robson, award nominated author Silver Screen

“Potentially blasphemous, definitely thought-provoking. Ryman asks a simple question and supplies a complex, multifaceted answer that stays with you long after you finish reading.”
– Antony Johnston, creator of Atomic Blonde

"Geoff Ryman has long been one of our finest writers, with no two books the same (or even similar). With Him, Ryman rewrites the Greatest Story Ever Told, using all the tools he has developed from his fantasy, science fiction, and historical fiction to craft something new from material so familiar, giving an immediacy and a reality and a shocking sense that we have never encountered this story before, nor this prophet nor his teaching. It's the kind of novel that will win awards and reach hearts and minds and be burnt on bonfires too. A profoundly religious book, in such unexpected ways."
– Neil Gaiman

From the Publisher