Mary

Starting with a dark-skinned girl barely out of adolescence when she gives birth, Lesley Hazleton weaves together the many facets of Mary's existence: peasant villager, wise woman and healer, activist, mother, teacher, and yes, virgin, though in a sense we have long forgotten. She follows her through the worst any mother can experience-the excruciating death of her child-and then looks at how she transforms grief into wisdom, disaster into renewal. Strong and courageous, the Mary we see here does not merely assent to her role in history, but chooses it and lives it to the fullest. Lesley Hazleton is the award-winning author of eight books, including Jerusalem, Jerusalem and Where Mountains Roar; her work has appeared in the New York Times, Harper's, Parade, Esquire, Vanity Fair, Mirabella, and the Nation. "Mary has the starch of real history to it...[Hazleton's] writing flows like wine and readers of fiction as well as history will enjoy it...Hazleton adds a layer to the Mary story that actually makes her more remarkable than ever."-Santa Cruz Sentinel "A thoughtful, astute biography."-Los Angeles Times "Readers who loved...Anita Diamant's The Red Tent will find this book about Mary, the mother of Jesus, just as enthralling...A page-turner."-Publishers Weekly "Thoughtful, evocative, and eminently readable...Dazzling to read and weighty to ponder."-Booklist (starred review) "Lesley Hazleton's Mary is simultaneously intellectual, fanciful, respectful and impious. In short: This is an original, contrary view, with something to challenge everyone who picks it up."-The Oregonian "At last! A real, flesh-and-blood Mary.This grounding of Mary's life as a brown-skinned, struggling peasant girl invites us deeper into the sheer, paradoxical mystery of faith."-Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking Also available: Mary hc 1 An intelligent, trenchant puzzling over [of] the details of history and culture, as well as a reclamation project...A tremendous accomplishment.-Seattle Times