Synopses & Reviews
Claudia's dreams have an uncanny way of coming true. She often "sees" things, real things, before they happen. But her gift can also be a curse in a time of deadly politics and social unrest. While destiny leads her to the temple of Isis, to Pompeii's Villa of Mysteries, the infamous snake pit of Pergamon, and into the arms of the Roman magistrate, Pontius Pilate, her heart always seems to belong somewhere else.
As a rebellious child seated beside the Emperor Tiberius, Claudia first sees the powerful gladiator, Holtan, who will become her one true love. But, young and impressionable, she evokes the power of Isis to beguile and win the ambitious Pontius Pilate. When Claudia accompanies Pilate to Judaea, she is plunged into a seething cauldron of open rebellion, and despite her deep longing for Holtan, she struggles to aid Pilate, whose career depends on his maintaining order in this troubled land.
Into this morass comes Miriam of Magdala, Claudia's longtime friend. When Miriam confides her ecstatic love for the religious radical, Jesus, Claudia is beset by terrifying premonitions. Jesus is arrested by high priests who fear his power, and in the hours before his trial, Claudia has an overwhelming dream of the crucifixion in which she hears the words "suffered under Pontius Pilate." Tormented by these visions of war, injustice, and devastation, Claudia desperately seeks to save the divine martyr.
Pilate's Wife is an impressive marriage of research and imagination in which Antoinette May introduces Claudia, one of the Bible's most enigmatic figures, in an extraordinary new light. Set in a world of political intrigue, passionate family rivalries and alliances, assassinations, and unmatched social upheaval, this visionary tale rings with historic credibility and captures the spirit of the Roman Empire. Pilate's Wife puts a provocative new spin on the "greatest story ever told."
Review
"Suffers from an unlikely, sweetly sentimental conclusion, but May's vivid settings, founded in research, make this quick read of a romantic adventure enjoyable." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"May's fiction debut is a fresh and vivid retelling of a well-known story comparable in scope to Anita Diamant's The Red Tent and Elizabeth Cunningham's The Passion of Mary Magdalene. One hopes this is the first of many novels by this excellent author." Library Journal
Review
"Though this is an admiring depiction of Christianity's beginnings, Pilate's Wife is not for those who interpret the Bible literally. But readers with a flexible vision of Christ's divinity...just might give Pilate's Wife the thumbs-up." USA Today
Review
"If the bulk of this Roman romance is merely overwrought, its long-delayed climax is surprisingly offensive....Long before Mel Gibson clarified his attitudes about Jews during that infamous traffic incident, he noted that the apparently anti-Semitic statements in his Passion of Christ were merely lifted verbatim from the Bible texts. But May takes such license with those texts throughout most of her story that she has forfeited even that specious defense of her conclusion. And so we're left to wonder why a writer would want to resurrect this deadly old prejudice." Ron Charles, The Washington Post Book World (read the entire Washington Post Book World review)
Synopsis
Set against a backdrop of the religious and political unrest of her life, a tale based on the story of Pontius Pilate's wife, Claudia, describes her friendship with Mary Magdalene, her secret love for a gladiator, and her devastating inability to prevent Jesus's execution in spite of a powerful vision about its consequences. 30,000 first printing.
Synopsis
The co-author of the New York Times bestselling Adventures of a Psychic, a biography of clairvoyant Sylvia Browne, makes her fiction debut with this awe-inspiring retelling of the last days of Jesus, as seen through the eyes of the wife of Pontius Pilate.
Synopsis
From Antoinette May, a New York Times bestselling author and striking new voice in literature, comes PILATE'S WIFE, the amazing story of Claudia, the seer who foresaw the persecution of Christians at the hand of the Romans and tried to stop the crucifixion of Jesus.
In the hours before Jesus' trial, Claudia, wife to Pontius Pilate, Roman magistrate of Jerusalem, has a vision in her sleep. She sees a man she has met before, Jesus, the husband of her friend Mary of Magdala, nailed to a crucifix, writhing in pain and offered only vinegar to quench his thirst. She sees men marching off to war, crosses emblazoned on their chests as they pillage foreign lands. She sees men and women fed to lions and burned alive. And she hears the name of her husband passed down through history... "suffered under Pontius Pilate."
Pulling from extensive research, Antoinette May recreates the known world of twoandndash;thousand years ago and puts an imaginative new twist on "the greatest story ever told." PILATE'S WIFE follows the life of Claudia as she travels to the battlefield of Gaul, the coliseum in Rome, the temples of Isis in Alexandria, and the holy temple in Jerusalem. The novel tells the story of Claudia's life as a mystic, describing the visions she saw leading up to her great vision of the crucifixion, but also her life as a woman, one torn between her duties as the wife of a Roman magistrate and her desires for the true love she has found with a gladiator.
Weaving together a vivid portrait of the Roman Empire at the beginning of the first millennium, the infighting and passions of the Roman royalty and upperandndash;class, and an aweandndash;inspiring recreation of the last days of Jesus, PILATE'S WIFE will offer a shocking new look at a story we thought we once new.
Synopsis
A daughter of privilege in the most powerful empire the world has ever known, Claudia has a unique and disturbing "gift": her dreams have an uncanny way of coming true. As a rebellious child seated beside the tyrannical Roman Emperor Tiberius, she first spies the powerful gladiator who will ultimately be her one true passion. Yet it is the ambitious magistrate Pontius Pilate who intrigues the impressionable young woman she becomes, and Claudia finds her way into his arms by means of a mysterious ancient magic. Pilate is her grand destiny, leading her to Judaea and plunging her into a seething cauldron of open rebellion. But following her friend Miriam of Magdala's confession of her ecstatic love for a charismatic religious radical, Claudia begins to experience terrifying visions—horrific premonitions of war, injustice, untold devastation and damnation . . . and the crucifixion of a divine martyr whom she must do everything in her power to save.
About the Author
Antoinette May is the author of several books, and the coauthor of Adventures of a Psychic, a biography of contemporary clairvoyant Sylvia Browne, which spent forty-two weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. She is a regular contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle, and has had articles published in Cosmopolitan, Country Living, Self, the San Diego Union, Los Angeles Times, and San Jose Mercury News. Pilate's Wife is her first novel.