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Requiem

by Graham Joyce

3.64 · Rating Details · 570 Ratings · 35 Reviews

SACRED MYSTERIES

Following the death of his wife, Tom Webster travels to Jerusalem in search of a friend from his college days. But the haunted city, divided by warring religious groups, offers him no refuge from guilt and grief.

As he wanders through the streets and the archaeological sites, a mysterious old woman appears to him, delivering messages that seem beyond compreh

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Mass Market Paperback, 308 pages

Published June 27th 2006 by Tor Books (first published 1995)

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Community Reviews

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Feb 08, 2014 Cher rated it liked it

Shelves: bookclub, literary-misc

2.5 stars - It was alright, an average book.

This had a fascinating underlying story that swirled around biblical lore, conpiracies and mythical creatures (jinns). Sadly, this underlying story kept getting interrupted and overshadowed by the boring plot of the main character.

The MC was weak, unlikeable, and dreadfully dull. I had absolutely zero interest in hearing his pathetic drivel as he stumbled through his pitiful life which was governed by base desires rather than intellect, (oh the irony ...more

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Jul 29, 2008 Greg rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I really liked this book. The plot was well constructed and it had a nice development, but then it kind of kept developing and the pages remaining started decreasing rapidly while the story kept building up. Eventually the story had to come to an end but the ending seemed more of an afterthought than any destination the author probably had in mind. I'd give this book four stars up until about the last forty or so pages.

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Nov 30, 2014 Jennifer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: jennifers-challenge, graham-joyce

You can roll your eyes if you like and mutter, "she just gave this guy another 5 star review, she must be a looney". I stand proudly on my pedestal and say "Yes I did". I woke up in the middle of the night and thought about this book.

Sex.Religion.Relationships. Is that what life is all about? Monty Python thought about it. Graham Joyce thought about it. He made me think about it.

Once again, we have an amazing cast of characters. Tom, Sharon, Ahmed, Tobie, and Mary Magdalene. What you say? Mary M ...more

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Jan 10, 2009 Julia rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: liberal magical-realists

Shelves: magical-realism

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I was all set to give this one 5 stars, since I was intrigued by the weaving of one man's personal grief with the City of Grief, Jerusalem. I had a chance to be in Jerusalem, and the book does a wonderful, eerie job of capturing the place, especially its power to haunt.

And indeed, this IS a ghost story, with the protagonist, Tom Webster, being haunted by his wife's ghost, his sexual fantasies, and his religious doubts. One of the most interesting characters is Ahmed, the Palestinian scholar who I was all set to give this one 5 stars, since I was intrigued by the weaving of one man's personal grief with the City of Grief, Jerusalem. I had a chance to be in Jerusalem, and the book does a wonderful, eerie job of capturing the place, especially its power to haunt.

And indeed, this IS a ghost story, with the protagonist, Tom Webster, being haunted by his wife's ghost, his sexual fantasies, and his religious doubts. One of the most interesting characters is Ahmed, the Palestinian scholar who translates the ancient scroll Tom has received from a dying Jewish man. Ahmed calls these ghosts DJINN, and is terrified of them.

The scroll itself, as Ahmed translates, is the story of Christ as told by Mary Magdalene, and carries the same message attempted in THE DAVINCI CODE, but with more intensity. Some Christians would be offended at the idea not only that the Magdalene was Jesus's wife but that she, Peter, and Judas had PLOTTED to save Jesus from the cross with certain herbs in order to fulfill the prophecies about the Messiah. They even practiced on Lazurus, giving him snake venom and then restoring him with a herbal compound!!!

However, to make the plan work, Jesus's legs could NOT be broken, as was the custom in crucifixion. And the "Liar" who tells the guard to do it, thus assuring the death of Jesus, turns out to be Saul, later Paul. The anger Joyce feels toward the church's misogyny is aimed directly at Paul, while the Magdalene is seen not only as Jesus's wife but his most loyal disciple.

The ending becomes so overboard that I could only give the book 4 stars--as if Joyce didn't know quite how to wrap it up. Tom shaves his head, plans to blow up St. Paul's with bottles of gasoline--the whole last few chapters wreck the "suspension of disbelief" necessary in magical realism.

However, the book DOES contain one of my top five favorite quotations. After Katie dies, Tom says:

"When people die they leave behind tiny deposits, like dust or ash, littering the lives of those who have to carry on. Impossible to wipe a house clean. Memories dwelled in cobweb places behind wardrobes and between cupboards; they hid behind radiators; they lurked on shelves; like slivers of shattered glass, they waited for their moment to lodge deep in any vulnerable expanse of passing skin."

Anyone who has suffered loss knows EXACTLY what those words mean.

...more

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May 16, 2014 Justin Howe rated it liked it

Man-pained widower fucks his way into a nervous breakdown, then fucks his way out. The Dead Sea Scrolls, Mary Magdalene, and djinn are also involved.

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Feb 09, 2013 Isidora rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Μια εντυπωσιακή και σφιχτοδεμένη ιστορία που εκτυλίσσεται στη σύγχρονη Ιερουσαλήμ, "πόλη των τζινν, όνειρο που 'βλεπες ξύπνιος, εφιάλτης, αλήθεια μες στο ψέμα, πώμα στα ύδατα των βαθών, αλώνι, χωνευτήρι, άξονας της γης, φαντασία κι ολόγραμμα, τόπος σφαγής και λύτρωσης, υπόσχεση ειρήνης."
Ένα βιβλίο με Χειρόγραφα της Νεκράς Θάλασσας, δαιμονικές Ερινύες, Ισραηλινούς με ούζι, αποσπάσματα της Παλαιάς Διαθήκης, μυρωδιές από φαλάφελ και βάλσαμο, ικανό να σε κρατήσει δέσμιο από την πρώτη μέχρι την τελευ ...more

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Jan 13, 2008 Jack Haringa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, horror

Just as rich and powerful as I'd remembered, Joyce's Requiem is a meditation on grief and secrets, those we keep from others and those we keep from ourselves. It's an intensely sexual novel as well--not erotic, but rather concerned with the effects and powers of physical intimacy, especially how we process it under pressure from religion and society. Joyce's evocation of Jerusalem feels thoroughly authentic; the city breathes on the page, and it lives as a character equal to the people who move ...more

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Oct 13, 2008 Trunatrschild rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction

Searching for occult in all the wrong places.

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Aug 18, 2013 Marcel Côté rated it really liked it

This novel is a tasty, well-written read that may be shocking to some because it presents the theory (like in The Da Vinci Code) that Jesus and Mary Magdelene were married, and that Mary was "written out" of the story by women-hating apostles, particularly Paul, after Jesus' death. This is revealed in a scroll written by Mary herself, which through a series of freak accidents falls into the hands of a troubled Brit named Tom who quit teaching and came to Jerusalem following his wife's death, see This novel is a tasty, well-written read that may be shocking to some because it presents the theory (like in The Da Vinci Code) that Jesus and Mary Magdelene were married, and that Mary was "written out" of the story by women-hating apostles, particularly Paul, after Jesus' death. This is revealed in a scroll written by Mary herself, which through a series of freak accidents falls into the hands of a troubled Brit named Tom who quit teaching and came to Jerusalem following his wife's death, seeking a spiritual reckoning of some kind as well as solace in the arms of Sharon, an old college flame, now a therapist who sleeps with her clients to "fuck the pain away" (as the singer Peaches has put it) and of course does the same for Tom. So we have scenes of him putting his finger in her vagina to taste her menstrual blood (which smells "saline" or "mineral") and this is contrasted to the backstory of Mary Magdelene's scroll, since the men of Mary time considered women unclean and killed Jesus, their would-be messiah, because he dared to consort with women as equals. Tom, being socialized in a very different era, is the kind of guy who doesn't know who he is unless he's being led around by some woman, so with his wife Kate dead in a freak accident he is at wits' end, overwhelmed with guilt because he was lusting after an underage student at the time - and now in Jerusalem, it seems the solution to his problems is to add even more sexual confusion in the form of Sharon, who is presented as the classic Earth Mother, raw female sexuality itself (as opposed to his wife Kate who was more WASPy and composed). Indeed, all the women in the story blur together in Tom's mind, and he starts hallucinating that he is fucking Kate when in fact he is in bed with Sharon, and sometimes his lover even takes the form of Mary Magdelene, when she's not wailing about how they killed Jesus by breaking his legs on the Cross. Add to this another subplot about an Arab scholar who helps Tom to translate the scroll, and who is possessed by jinns (malicious spirits) and can see them everywhere in the streets of Old Jerusalem - the jinns even disguise themselves as Israeli soldiers and Palestinian youth to stir up hate between the two groups and interfere with the peace process! In the midst of this, which is entertainingly told and a delight to read if you don't take it too seriously, there is unfortunately Tom, who has almost no qualities of his own and is basically a Generic White Guy, well-intentioned but always the last to grasp what's going on - a standin for the presumed reader, I assume. Indeed Tom's cluelessness leads directly to the death that ends the novel, since in the midst of a riot when two Arab youth climb a wall to escape the soldiers on their tail and one of them drops a rifle, Tom's first instinct is to pick it up and stand dumbly with it ("What's THIS doing here?") obliging someone who cares about him more than I do to tackle him and take the bullets that were meant for Tom, and should have left this blithering Englishman bleeding out in the alleys of Jerusalem, a more satisfying ending in my view. The problem is that Tom just isn't up to the level of the historic backstory of a failed messiah and a plot by Jesus' followers to hijack his movement after his death and turn it into a religion that hates women. What do the problems of some idiot high school teacher tormented by sexual guilt and a crisis of faith have to do with such world-shaking material? Or conversely, why would the spirits of the past, desperate to make the truth about Mary Magdelene known in our time, choose such a clueless dope as their messenger? In the end the two stories, Tom's and Mary's, don't really gel, so that either the Mary story is reduced to an exotic backdrop for Tom's personal crisis, or Tom's Generic White Guy problems are a needless distraction from the real drama taking place 2000 years ago. But none of this takes away from the fact that this book is a brilliantly written, fast and fun read. Pick it up if you have a taste for jinns and the supernatural, are bored and want to read something you don't have to take too seriously. ...more

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Aug 05, 2009 Scott rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: in-my-library

Graham Joyce, has become a favorite author of mine. Along with Jeffrey Ford, the more I read of his work, the more I respect his talent. This was the third novel by Joyce I have read. From Publishers Weekly via Amazon.Com, here is a rundown on the plot:

Fleeing his (only semi-explained) guilt after the senseless, accidental death of his wife, Tom Webster quits teaching and visits his longtime friend and ex-lover, Sharon, in Jerusalem. Soon, he is haunted by hallucinations, or perhaps they're app

Fleeing his (only semi-explained) guilt after the senseless, accidental death of his wife, Tom Webster quits teaching and visits his longtime friend and ex-lover, Sharon, in Jerusalem. Soon, he is haunted by hallucinations, or perhaps they're apparitions, or djinnis, and is entrusted with some Dead Sea scroll fragments. Joyce's Jerusalem is suffused with squalor and splendor, religious meaning and political struggle, as Tom tries to figure out what a host of emissaries from both the natural and the supernatural realms are trying to tell him about the world and about himself.

What I liked best about Joyce's work is that the fantastical in his novels is subtle. Not that the reader needs to dig or watch for clues, but that the characters sometimes don't realize what is happening, or they are just thrown headlong into some vat of magic fantasy. With "Requiem" this is especially poignant. It goes to even deeper degrees. It almost explores the inner workings of one's mind to create the fantastical around them.

This book though explores more of the inner workings of the mind. Three of the characters, including the two main characters, you get to see what makes them tick. And they all have issues of guilt they are dealing with from their past. Guilt comes in all kinds of different ways. It even comes from lies that one character tells to them self, and then also tells others. Like one reviewer at Amazon said, the story can be quite tense, yet there is very little action.

One very interesting aspect of the story is a conspiracy within the Christian church. The Dead Sea Scroll fragments that he receives helps Tom's inner demons along. He ends up haunted by Mary Magdalene, and it brings forth a shake-up between Mary Magdalene and Saul/Paul regarding the role of women in the church, and lies supposedly perpetrated by Paul. I don't know much about this, but know some of Paul's views.

As I mentioned, this was quite a tense story. This was the book that introduced me to Graham Joyce. I saw it as a recommendation, read the synopsis and a couple of reviews, and was drawn in. I ended up obtaining a copy, yet it took me over three years and two other of Joyce's novels before finally getting to it. I think it was best to start with those other novels as it turns out. ...more

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Feb 17, 2017 Aoife Martin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The late Graham Joyce deserves to be better known. This, his fourth novel, is an atmospheric tale of ghosts and religion and female sexuality set mostly in Jerusalem.

After the death of his wife, Tom quits his teaching job and goes to Jerusalem to visit an old friend. While there his life takes a turn into bizarre and dangerous territory as he tries to come to terms with his loss.

Joyce reminds me in some ways of Jonathan Carroll, one of my favourite writers, in the way ghosts and the supernatur ...more

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Sep 09, 2011 Linda rated it liked it

Shelves: mod-lit, paranormal

Tom Webster's wife, Katie, died suddenly about a year ago, and he just can't seem to get back on his feet. He resigns from his teaching job, amid some unsavory rumors about him and one of his students, and heads to Jerusalem, where his best friend, Sharon, from college days, now resides. But Tom doesn't have her current address, and while searching for her, he befriends an elderly man at his hotel. David confides to Tom that he is in possession of a valuable Dead Sea Scroll, and, knowing that he Tom Webster's wife, Katie, died suddenly about a year ago, and he just can't seem to get back on his feet. He resigns from his teaching job, amid some unsavory rumors about him and one of his students, and heads to Jerusalem, where his best friend, Sharon, from college days, now resides. But Tom doesn't have her current address, and while searching for her, he befriends an elderly man at his hotel. David confides to Tom that he is in possession of a valuable Dead Sea Scroll, and, knowing that he's dying, he insists that Tom take it, which he does with great reluctance. Tom's thrilled to be walking the streets of the city, but is accosted repeatedly by a creepy old woman, who changes her appearance before his eyes, and leaves him enigmatic messages. He tracks Sharon down, and she takes him in, introducing to a translator, Ahmed. Ahmed discovers that the scroll was written by Mary Magdalen, and reveals stunning evidence about the founding of the Christian religion. Ahmed, a heavy hash user, also tells Tom about the djinni, spirits who are making his life miserable, convincing Tom that they're bedeviling him as well.

Sounds simple enough. But Requiem is told in a series of non-linear flashbacks, and it becomes increasingly difficult to fathom what is going on with Tom. Is he losing his mind? Is the old woman a ghost, a djinn, or is she real? Sharon, a drug rehab therapist doesn't know what to think, especially after a grueling djinn experience of her own. Among these spirits is that of Katie, who seems to want something from them both. As it turns out, Sharon, Ahmed, and Tom are all struggling with their own guilt issues, and none of them is doing it well.

Enigmas can be interesting, as they are in this book. While the setting is crucial to the novel, there is very little overt action, most of which takes place in the minds of the protagonists. The ending is quite dramatic, as well as unexpected. This was my intro to the work of Graham Joyce, who can certainly write with power. Looking forward to checking out his other titles, most of which have not been published in the American market.

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Jan 11, 2009 Peejay Who Once Was Minsma rated it liked it

I'd probably give this one 3.5. It's beautifully written, a conjuration of impressive scope, and the first half had me completely absorbed. Mr. Joyce does an amazing job at making Jerusalem a character in this book: an exotic, decrepit, aging beauty; crazy, djinn-haunted, schizophrenic, part whore, part aesthete, part fundamentalist fanatic. It's a city at war with itself, and anyone who wanders into its insane tangle of streets may soon find themselves at war within their own soul, and pulled i ...more

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Jun 26, 2015 Sara rated it it was ok

Joyce's characterization of Jerusalem really pulled me in. It was incredibly charismatic. Some of his suggestions about Christianity were provocative and fascinating. I enjoyed the mixture of magic, history, and christianity. I found it difficult to follow all of their implications as they unfold from the scroll translations. It felt at times like the historical characters got mixed up in the translation and the author's message was too muddy. I agree with other reviewers that not addressing the ...more

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Jun 17, 2013 Maria Vladimirova rated it really liked it

Книга была заглочена за полтора дня. Именно заглочена, т.к. остановиться было просто не возможно. Но прежде всего я люблю, я Очень Люблю Грэма Джойса. Ну и во вторых, сюжет закручен довольно лихо... Что касаемо аннотации, не стоит возлагать большие надежды на детективно-историкографическую составляющую книги. Безусловно, сходство с творением Дэна Брауна есть, но только по форме, но не по сути. Да, автор нам предлагает один из вариантов альтернативной версии христианства. Поскольку я не знаток, д Книга была заглочена за полтора дня. Именно заглочена, т.к. остановиться было просто не возможно. Но прежде всего я люблю, я Очень Люблю Грэма Джойса. Ну и во вторых, сюжет закручен довольно лихо... Что касаемо аннотации, не стоит возлагать большие надежды на детективно-историкографическую составляющую книги. Безусловно, сходство с творением Дэна Брауна есть, но только по форме, но не по сути. Да, автор нам предлагает один из вариантов альтернативной версии христианства. Поскольку я не знаток, для меня прошло... Но не уверена что данная версия будет с распростертыми объятьями принята людьми воцерковленными в православии. В общем, Грэм Джойс в этой книге взялася за две "нехилые" весьма огнеопасные темы - подавленная мужская сексуальность, и подавление сексуальности в христианстве. Интригует, правда? :rolleyes: Довольно правдиво описана история развития невроза, ну и в каком-то смысле апофеоз, почти психотический... Т.е. история одного мужчины, у которого в жизни случилась трагедия, ну а как параллель - Иерусалим - город построенный в "сердце мира", обладающей своей душой в которой переплелись и взаимоперепутались почти все мировые религии, где сталкиваются разные народы в притязаниях на превосходство друг над другом.

Так же и в жизни психической у ГГ, структура невроза - это столкновение разных энергий, систем ценностей, эмоций и потребностей... остро сдобренное внезапной травмой. "Питательная среда" Иерусалима провоцирует, нагнетает... но а в итоге исцеляет.

Книга очень эротизированна, как ни какая другая у Джойса, так что рекомендую тем, кто готов погрузиться в мир полумистических-эротических переживаний и похождений главного героя. ...more

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Jul 03, 2014 George rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy

Μιας και οι περισσότεροι θεωρείτε ότι το Η νεράιδα των δοντιών είναι το καλύτερο μυθιστόρημα του Γκράχαμ Τζόις ή, τέλος πάντων, το καλύτερο από αυτά που έχουν μεταφραστεί στα ελληνικά, είπα να πιάσω πρώτα τα άλλα του βιβλία και τελευταίο αυτό. Έτυχε να πιάσω πρώτο το Ρέκβιεμ.

Ένας Βρετανός θεολόγος καθηγητής Λυκείου παραιτείται από την δουλειά του και ταξιδεύει στην Ιερουσαλήμ, με τον θάνατο της γυναίκας του να τον στοιχειώνει ακόμα. Εκεί θα μπλεχτεί σε μια περίεργη ιστορία με τα χαμένα χειρόγρα Μιας και οι περισσότεροι θεωρείτε ότι το Η νεράιδα των δοντιών είναι το καλύτερο μυθιστόρημα του Γκράχαμ Τζόις ή, τέλος πάντων, το καλύτερο από αυτά που έχουν μεταφραστεί στα ελληνικά, είπα να πιάσω πρώτα τα άλλα του βιβλία και τελευταίο αυτό. Έτυχε να πιάσω πρώτο το Ρέκβιεμ.

Ένας Βρετανός θεολόγος καθηγητής Λυκείου παραιτείται από την δουλειά του και ταξιδεύει στην Ιερουσαλήμ, με τον θάνατο της γυναίκας του να τον στοιχειώνει ακόμα. Εκεί θα μπλεχτεί σε μια περίεργη ιστορία με τα χαμένα χειρόγραφα της Νεκράς Θάλασσας και με μυστηριώδη οράματα να τον στοιχειώνουν όπου σταθεί και όπου βρεθεί.

Αυτά σε γενικές γραμμές. Ο Τζόις έμπλεξε δυο ενδιαφέρουσες ιδέες, τα χειρόγραφα και τα Τζινν, χωρίς όμως το τελικό αποτέλεσμα να ικανοποιεί απόλυτα. Γενικά η πλοκή μου φάνηκε κάπως προβληματική σε αρκετά σημεία και γενικά περίεργη, δεν μπορώ να πω ότι με έπεισε, ενώ δεν υπήρχε και μια ισορροπία ανάμεσα στις δυο ιδέες. Από κει και πέρα όμως δεν ήταν λίγες οι σκηνές έντασης που να μου τραβήξουν την προσοχή, οι περιγραφές της Ιερουσαλήμ καταπληκτικές, ολοζώντανες, ένιωσα ότι βρισκόμουν σ'αυτό το μαγικό μέρος, οι χαρακτήρες σίγουρα ενδιαφέροντες και πειστικοί, ενώ η ατμόσφαιρα ιδιαίτερα μυστηριώδης και σκοτεινή.

Σε γενικές γραμμές πέρασα καλά, είναι ένα βιβλίο με το οποίο περνάει αρκετά δημιουργικά η ώρα, όμως με τέτοιο υλικό ίσως θα μπορούσε να ήταν καλύτερο. Επόμενο βιβλίο του Τζόις στην σειρά, μάλλον, το Σκοτεινό ημερολόγιο. ...more

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Jan 22, 2008 Bill rated it it was ok

Shelves: horror

I'm having a really tough time composing a review for this one because since finishing it I've been left with mixed feelings. I guess I'll start off with a brief story outline...
Tom Webster has just lost his wife in a freak accident. He up and quits his schoolteaching job and heads to Jerusalem in search of an old friend. The rest of the story surrounds revelations discovered from the lost Dead Sea scrolls and Tom's struggles with his past. Joyce depicts
Jerusalem vividly and you're constantly aw ...more

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May 06, 2012 Christopher Hivner rated it liked it

Not able to get over the sudden death of his wife, Tom Webster quits his job teaching and goes to Israel to visit an old college friend. While there, he begins hallucinating, seeing an old woman who is trying to send him a message. He also meets an old man who claims to have real pieces of one of the Dead Sea scrolls. Just before the man dies, he asks Webster to get the pieces out of the country. Webster descends further into madness as his hallucinations deepen and then seem to connect to a sto ...more

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Apr 26, 2014 Steven rated it it was ok

Shelves: novels, speculative-fiction

Joyce Graham’s Requiem is a confusing hodge podge of themes and ideas. There are ghosts, demons, self-deception, religious possibilities and retellings, and human deceptions. He created a ride that I did not enjoy.

The characters are not three dimensional, though they are almost empathetic. They do move through the story and grow in some ways. But they aren’t three dimensional. The plot is certainly not predictable, though it does follow a few inevitabilities.

Perhaps Joyce should have tackled on ...more

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Nov 14, 2009 Marya rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Another great book by Joyce. This time around the characters are so messed up, so disfunctional that you cannot help but root for them to make it through, to find the secrets out, to win. Set in a city that I have little knowledge of, Joyce led us on a wonderful mystery filled with religion, love, the supernatural and the stupid things that we do when we are in love. Once again he has me looking at the world in a very different way.

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Dec 30, 2011 Michelle rated it did not like it

Shelves: 2011, fiction

Pretty much hated this book. It had too many plotlines that weren't very cohesive and not what I thought given the summary. A lot of crass language and overuse of a word I particularly despise and find unnecessary. Don't know if he's written anything else but I won't be reading. I really thought I would like this as I am extremely interested in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Not very well researched and particulary offensive to Christians. Can you tell I didn't like it?

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Jun 19, 2011 Erin rated it liked it · review of another edition

Read this book after having read his most recent book Silent Land. Liked this one but barely... Couldn't sympathize with any of the characters and frankly was asking myself several times how many more pages are there to read?

Did enjoy the description of Jerusalem although I have not yet been. Perhaps this was the one character I enjoyed and didn't want to roll my eyes for...

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Sep 05, 2013 Jason rated it really liked it

a real page-turner I have to say; finished it under 24 hours. Add elements of the DaVinci code with a surreal backdrop similar to a Jonathan Carroll story with modern-day Jerusalem serving as the back-drop. The ending didn't quite give me the summing up I was looking for, but the story itself was quite engaging nonetheless.

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May 10, 2014 Terry Mark rated it really liked it

A delirious journey around the darker sides of Jerusalem, where nothing is quite what it seems and where it pays to keep looking over your shoulder. When you can never be sure what is truth or is just a red herring. Graham Joyce you are a one off indeed. Great stuff.

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Dec 23, 2012 Heather rated it really liked it

What an interesting book to be reading just as the Mayan "apocalypse" and Christmas are coming up. This is the second book by Joyce I've read, and as always, he leaves you guessing.

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Sep 21, 2012 Divno rated it liked it

I really enjoyed the writing and the historic elementt

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Jul 13, 2008 Fred rated it liked it · review of another edition

an interesting quick read, predictable from about half way through

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Jul 25, 2011 Lapetitesteph added it · review of another edition

Bien.

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Feb 26, 2013 Athena rated it it was amazing

Even though I read it more than ten years ago I still remember the atmosphere. Great book, one of my favourites of the genre.

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Jul 31, 2013 Mary rated it it was amazing

Really an interesting read. Elements of speculative fiction, religion and a stunning examination of grief. Plus an interesting look at life in contemporary Jerusalem.

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About Graham Joyce

Graham Joyce (22 October 1954 – 9 September 2014) was an English writer of speculative fiction and the recipient of numerous awards for both his novels and short stories.

After receiving a B.Ed. from Bishop Lonsdale College in 1977 and a M.A. from the University of Leicester in 1980. Joyce worked as a youth officer for the National Association of Youth Clubs until 1988. He subsequently quit his po ...more

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