Folks who received advance reader copies of Wormwood and Gall have posted five-star reviews on Amazon.
Pastor Wesley White has penned his own book centered in Mark’s gospel, entitled, Slow Reading the Gospel of Mark, a reflective, meditative, and introspective invitation into the gospel narrative. Pastor White’s review of Wormwood and Gall lauds the historical integrity, the weaving of scriptural themes, and the theological consistency of the novel with the gospel:
Historical and archeological details scattered throughout the novel give a richness and grounding to the reading … Holmen knows his history and scripture and weaves them together in a way that surprises and delights … The question of, ‘Who am I’ (from the perspective of both Jesus and the reader), lies at the heart of Mark’s gospel and is raised in a variety of ways throughout this novel … an organizing principle.
Phil Soucy also commends the historical underpinnings of the novel:
Brilliance in historical fiction lies in stitching together the tumult of large events through the lives of fictional characters, their veracity resulting from meticulous and encyclopedic research into the events themselves, the cultures of the time, the societies that existed within those cultures, and an understanding of the impact on the future flowing out from this time.
Soucy adds that the novel speaks to the human condition through the experiences of the principal character:
Markos … seeking to extract meaning from the events of his life as they happen, is drawn along a path towards authenticity about who he is. We, you, will be pulled along with him.
My thanks to Wesley and Phil as they help to bring Wormwood and Gall to the attention of readers interested in Biblical history and the big questions in life.
