It’s an uneven, non-chronological read, hopping between 35 and 63 AD in Rome, Antioch, Jerusalem, Galilee and Damascus. Tsiolkas sees Paul as a man tormented by his sexual transgressions and his homosexuality before he becomes a follower of the Jewish prophet Jesus, rather than a persecutor ( Damascus starts with the stoning to death of a Christian woman who Saul has reported for blasphemy to the Romans).
But it lacks the lightness of touch and convincing dialogue of those very modern novels.Īs well Paul’s voice, Tsiolkas brings us those of Thomas, Timothy, Vrasas, a Roman soldier, and Lydia, who was, apparently, the first non-Jewish convert to Christianity. Damascus addresses questions of class, shame and doubt that are also present in The Slap and his other works and there’s shit, vomit and lust along this Damascene path. There’s a lot of raw, visceral squalor in this brutal Roman world 35 years after Christ’s death, and the testament according to Tsiolkas is full of stonings, castrations and other ghastly punishments.
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