All I can say is that this is the most human depiction of the Lord I have ever read. This volume in Rice's Christ the Lord series jumps from the Finding in the Temple in the previous volume (Out of Egypt) to Jesus on the verge of starting his mission.

Yeshua ben Joseph is thirty and people are beginning to wonder why such an eligible young man has elected to stay single despite the obvious affection of his kinswoman Avigail and his own social standing as an expert carpenter and the son of one of the elders of Nazareth. The drama begins when two boys are stoned to death for what the villagers euphemistically call an "abomination" and snowball down into a series of events culminating with the miracle at a wedding in Cana.

For a writer best known for her novels about vampires, Anne Rice has written a compelling depiction of village life during the time of Christ and presents him as a sympathetic figure who meets many temptations on his way to fulfilling his destiny as the Son of God, Savior of Mankind.

If you're either a really pious Catholic / Christian (why, oh why should there even be a distinction?!?) or are truly into good fiction and stirring tales, then this is one book you should really find time for.