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Names of the Women
From the Booker-shortlisted author of Narcopolis, in prose of extraordinary power, a novel about the women whose roles were suppressed, reduced or erased in the Gospels.
'Dazzling, smouldering . . . It is literally a tale that's waited a thousand years to be told.' MARLON JAMES, WINNER OF THE 2015 MAN BOOKER PRIZE
Names of the Women begins with Christ on the cross addressing Mary of Magdala, asking her to bear witness to his death. As the novel unfolds, it tells the stories of fifteen women whose lives overlapped with the life of Christ. Lydia and Assia, Martha and Mary of Bethany, Junia the Widow of Jerusalem, Susanna the Barren, Ariamma the Canaanite, and others whose names have been spoken only in passing or not at all. Women who stayed with Christ through the crucifixion, when his disciples had abandoned him, and who spread his radical message - one that made them equals and a profound threat to power within the church.
Together, the voices of the women dare us to reimagine the story of the New Testament in a way it has never before been told.
*A 'BOOKS OF 2021' PICK IN THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND NEW STATESMAN *
'Dazzling, smouldering . . . It is literally a tale that's waited a thousand years to be told.' MARLON JAMES, WINNER OF THE 2015 MAN BOOKER PRIZE
Names of the Women begins with Christ on the cross addressing Mary of Magdala, asking her to bear witness to his death. As the novel unfolds, it tells the stories of fifteen women whose lives overlapped with the life of Christ. Lydia and Assia, Martha and Mary of Bethany, Junia the Widow of Jerusalem, Susanna the Barren, Ariamma the Canaanite, and others whose names have been spoken only in passing or not at all. Women who stayed with Christ through the crucifixion, when his disciples had abandoned him, and who spread his radical message - one that made them equals and a profound threat to power within the church.
Together, the voices of the women dare us to reimagine the story of the New Testament in a way it has never before been told.
*A 'BOOKS OF 2021' PICK IN THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND NEW STATESMAN *
192 pages, Hardcover
First published March 25, 2021
20 people are currently reading
672 people want to read
About the author
Jeet Thayil
32 books293 followersJeet Thayil (born 1959 in Kerala) is an Indian poet, novelist, librettist and musician. He is best known as a poet and is the author of four collections: These Errors Are Correct (Tranquebar, 2008), English (2004, Penguin India, Rattapallax Press, New York, 2004), Apocalypso (Ark, 1997) and Gemini (Viking Penguin, 1992). His first novel, Narcopolis, (Faber & Faber, 2012), was shortlisted for the 2012 Man Booker Prize and the Hindu Literary Prize 2013.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
April 18, 2021
You must allow the women to speak …… Because if not for them, my teaching would amount to nothing. Mary of Magdala, and Mary and Martha of Bethany, and Susanna, and Joanna [wife of Herod’s steward] and the other women who provided for me out of their resources – without them I could not have continued …….
With the passing of time the elders of the Church will ignore or forget his teaching with respect to women. They will build the church on the witness of the women but they will refuse to record their names. But this they cannot change, that the risen Christ appeared first to Mary of Magdala and that it was the women who were the first leaders of the Church. This is the book of the martyrdom of Jesus, and this is the book of the women who travelled with him.
This book is an unashamedly feminist (or I think it would be more accurate to say female-character-centric) storytelling of the Gospel; a retelling inspired by the author’s Syrian Christian upbringing and by his storyteller Grandmother (who is named in the book’s dedication together with the other influential women in the author’s life).
It starts with the canonical gospels, often taking a marginalised detail – typically a female character given either only a name or a walk-on-part without a name and restoring both story and name to those characters in vivid acts of imagination (some of which draw further on Church traditions or non-canonical gospels).
Examples of the women included (who typically have a chapter each – each chapter ending with the name of the character (the chapters largely preceding backwards in time)
Mary of Magdala – who has a first chapter around Jesus’s resurrection and the first meeting with the risen Christ, and a second chapter where she sees Jesus heal the bleeding woman and the Caananite woman of Matthew 15, and where Mary becomes Jesus’s first female disciple (herself a wealthy woman who Jesus heals from what we would call depression)
Susanna – from Luke Chapter 8 - who is placed in the Road to Emmaeus encounter and later becomes an early preacher
Old Mary, mother of James and Salome (from Luke 24) – who gives a vivid account of the walk to Calvary
Aqulia – the unnamed maidservant who challenges Peter in Matthew 26 (and who in the chapter has a ringside seat in Caiphas’s sham trial of Jesus)
Mary of Bethany – who in her chapter is (as well as her more conventional Gospel interactions) the woman who anoints Jesus’s feet with her tears and precious perfume at Simon the Pharisee's house
Martha of Bethany
Junia, widow of Jerusalem – with her mite (unnamed in the Bible), who also witnesses the entrance to Jerusalem
Ariamma the Canaanite – the unnamed woman caught in adultery, whose would be lynch mob are shamed by Jesus’s “let he who is without Sin cast the first stone)
Herodias
Salome (I have to say that these two chapters were disappointing – I had expected some form of retelling/justification of their acts around the murder of John The Baptist, or perhaps an explanation of how they came to be used as pawns by the authorities (or a front operation for Herod) in silencing John but instead the two come across as psychopathic
Joanna, wife of Chuza (here interestingly it is her husband unnamed in the Gospels) – and so part of Herod’s household – her account of John’s death and her subsequent journey to inform and then join Jesus is so much more powerful for the way in which (at least to me) it sticks to the author’s overarching intentions
Assia and then Lydia – two sisters of Jesus. Here the novel draws convincingly on a tradition that Joseph was an elderly widower with children from a previous marriage when he met Mary. His exile with her to Egypt starting a breach between his children from the first marriage and their younger step-brother which never entirely went away. The actual chapters themselves are set well after Jesus’s death - with one sister selling fake childhood relics and the other in a madhouse – and were not I have to say my favourite other than for the way in which both saw a different side of Jesus to others
Shoshamma – the wife of the penitent thief (who also encounters the penitent thief) – this was perhaps the most tangential chapter, with the gospel link only in the last paragraph.
Mary – mother of Jesus. This chapter draws heavily on the Gospel of James for her origins as daughter of Anna, dedicated to the temple and given to the elderly Joseph – before her virginal conception at a very young age.
Some of the chapters have (like the opening quote to my review) a strong challenge to the patriarchal and sometimes misogynistic way in which the Gospel has been taught by the church – a challenge with which I have a lot of sympathy. It is I think hard to the point of obtuseness (even if incredibly and tragically common) to read the gospels and so many of the stories here (plus some that are not – such as Jesus with the woman at the well) and not to see that Jesus was radically counter-cultural in his treatment of women. And while some of the parts seem to go to far – at one stage we are told Jesus followed up his rich man/camel analogy to say “It is easier for a woman to enter heaven than for a man” – even these make some sense on reflection, as what comes across strongly in these stories (and which fits the gospels) is that many men – even those keen to follow him - approached Jesus with a sense of entitlement and self-righteousness and with closed minds, whereas women (like children, the sick, the sinners) came with a sense of faith and openness.
There is also unfortunately a framing device interleaved around some of the chapters which does not work for me – with short chapters of Jesus talking to Mary Magdala from the cross (or perhaps after it) and I think sharing an alternative – now lost - gospel with her. I could not see how having Jesus speak in this way (and in a way which at times felt not just contradictory to the real gospels, but to many of the stories of the women and even internally inconsistent between the short chapters) really helped the story. The book would be so much stronger without these.
Overall though – and despite my reservations around the Salome/Herodias chapters, the sister chapters and particularly the Jesus ones – I enjoyed the book and as a gospel-believing Christian found it simultaneously challenged and reinforced my faith and lead my straight back to the greatest story of all.
My thanks to Random House UK, Vintage for an ARC via NetGalley
April 17, 2021
There’s a very interesting idea behind Names of the Women. The history of the Christian church has been written by men, but it is clear from even a superficial reading of the New Testament, that there are many women involved in the story. Most of these women disappear into the background and even many of those that feature as individuals are not named. This book names fifteen women and tells their stories. It does this via a mixture of Biblical evidence, church tradition and imagination. In some ways, I have to say that the author here was, when I was reading the book, preaching to converted because I have been involved in the Christian church for 50 years and have, as far as I remember, always considered the women in the story to be key. However, it is definitely true that scant detail is provided in the Bible for most of these women and some who Thayil picks up on are ignored completely.
Some of the women are well known, even outside of Christianity. Mary, mother of Jesus, for example. Or Mary of Magdala. Some might require a working knowledge of the New Testament. The widow who dropped two mites into a collection box, for example. Some might require you to have had exposure to specific church traditions. Jesus’ two older sisters would be the prime example here. As I say, I have been a Christian for 50 of my 60 years, so I had a bit of head start. I couldn’t guess the name of every woman, but this is because they do not have names recorded anywhere and Thayil has imagined names for them here, but I did manage to place all of them in the story fairly quickly in their respective chapters.
We start at the crucifixion. As Jesus hangs on the cross, he speaks to Mary and we then jump forward a few days to Mary’s experience of the risen Jesus and her frustration at the men (his disciples) who will not believe her story but who then appropriate it once they have seen for themselves.
Later, on the next day and the days to come, when they tell the story of the risen body, they will paint themselves as brave men who went to the tomb to see for themselves. They will leave out the story of the woman who was first to enter the tomb. But they will not be able to erase completely the name of the woman.
The we meet Susanna the Barren who follows two men on the road to Emmaus where they encounter the risen Jesus. The men fail to understand what is happening and it takes an intervention by Susanna to explain things. And we read:
WIth the passing of time the elders of the Church will ignore or forget his teaching with respect to women. They will build the Church on the witness of the women but they will refuse to record their names.
But this they cannot change, that the risen Christ appeared first to Mary of Magdala and it was the women who were the first leaders of the Church.
From there, a large part of the book works gradually backwards in time identifying women who have been ignored to one degree or another by church history. These early chapters have set the context for the book: the women who have been written out by male-dominated history have something to teach us and we need to hear their stories.
Some of the chapters have mixed timelines, but the general thrust of each one, for most of the book, takes us a bit further back. Towards the end of the book, this approach changes and the timelines becomes more mixed. This works less well for me: I preferred reading the book when there was a sense of (backwards) progression to each chapter.
But, so far so good. This idea of recovering the stories of the women in the Gospels feels challenging and thought-provoking.
However, there is a second idea very much at work as these women’s stories are told. The “cover up” that has led to these women being ignored has, at the same time, radically altered the message that Jesus taught. What the (male dominated) Church has been promulgating for 2000 years is a corrupted version of the truth. Interspersed among the stories of the women, we read of Jesus talking to Mary as he hangs on the cross. He is delivering a message that has been ignored by the church as the women have been written out of the story.
Despite my decades of living as a Christian, I would not claim that this is an entirely false position. It is hard to believe that 2000 years of human interpretation has not in some places changed the message. It is all too human to interpret things in a way that suits us. In fact, it is hard to do otherwise. We see this in our own relatively recent history that has used the Bible to justify wars, slavery and subjugation of women (for example).
But it is a big leap, for me, to get to the Jesus presented in this book. Here we have a Jesus who says
…for I want you to listen as I say to you that forgiveness is the recourse of the weak and we must not forgive.
Here we have a Jesus who is weakened because power leaves him when he performs miracles, who has a thirst for fame and renown, who makes sarcastic jokes at the expense of his disciples, who is talked into reluctantly resurrecting a man by the man’s two sisters (a miracle which all involved almost immediately regret, especially Lazarus, the man resurrected, who turns to drink because he cannot cope).
This is challenging stuff. The men in this book do not fare well. The Jesus presented in this book does not seem to be the kind of person who would attract thousands of followers during his life and billions afterwards. (But then, the “billions afterwards” are following the Jesus presented by the male-dominated version of the story.)
Overall, I found this to be a very uneven book. It started out challengingly and started to draw me in. The stories of the women are challenging and interesting. I struggle with the Jesus it presents, but I acknowledge this might just be 50 years of programming in my brain. If it had just been the stories of the women, it could easily have been a 4 or 5 star book for me, but the interpretation of the men in the book, especially Jesus, made it a struggle for me.
3.5 stars rounded down for now.
My thanks to the publisher for an ARC via NetGalley.
Some of the women are well known, even outside of Christianity. Mary, mother of Jesus, for example. Or Mary of Magdala. Some might require a working knowledge of the New Testament. The widow who dropped two mites into a collection box, for example. Some might require you to have had exposure to specific church traditions. Jesus’ two older sisters would be the prime example here. As I say, I have been a Christian for 50 of my 60 years, so I had a bit of head start. I couldn’t guess the name of every woman, but this is because they do not have names recorded anywhere and Thayil has imagined names for them here, but I did manage to place all of them in the story fairly quickly in their respective chapters.
We start at the crucifixion. As Jesus hangs on the cross, he speaks to Mary and we then jump forward a few days to Mary’s experience of the risen Jesus and her frustration at the men (his disciples) who will not believe her story but who then appropriate it once they have seen for themselves.
Later, on the next day and the days to come, when they tell the story of the risen body, they will paint themselves as brave men who went to the tomb to see for themselves. They will leave out the story of the woman who was first to enter the tomb. But they will not be able to erase completely the name of the woman.
The we meet Susanna the Barren who follows two men on the road to Emmaus where they encounter the risen Jesus. The men fail to understand what is happening and it takes an intervention by Susanna to explain things. And we read:
WIth the passing of time the elders of the Church will ignore or forget his teaching with respect to women. They will build the Church on the witness of the women but they will refuse to record their names.
But this they cannot change, that the risen Christ appeared first to Mary of Magdala and it was the women who were the first leaders of the Church.
From there, a large part of the book works gradually backwards in time identifying women who have been ignored to one degree or another by church history. These early chapters have set the context for the book: the women who have been written out by male-dominated history have something to teach us and we need to hear their stories.
Some of the chapters have mixed timelines, but the general thrust of each one, for most of the book, takes us a bit further back. Towards the end of the book, this approach changes and the timelines becomes more mixed. This works less well for me: I preferred reading the book when there was a sense of (backwards) progression to each chapter.
But, so far so good. This idea of recovering the stories of the women in the Gospels feels challenging and thought-provoking.
However, there is a second idea very much at work as these women’s stories are told. The “cover up” that has led to these women being ignored has, at the same time, radically altered the message that Jesus taught. What the (male dominated) Church has been promulgating for 2000 years is a corrupted version of the truth. Interspersed among the stories of the women, we read of Jesus talking to Mary as he hangs on the cross. He is delivering a message that has been ignored by the church as the women have been written out of the story.
Despite my decades of living as a Christian, I would not claim that this is an entirely false position. It is hard to believe that 2000 years of human interpretation has not in some places changed the message. It is all too human to interpret things in a way that suits us. In fact, it is hard to do otherwise. We see this in our own relatively recent history that has used the Bible to justify wars, slavery and subjugation of women (for example).
But it is a big leap, for me, to get to the Jesus presented in this book. Here we have a Jesus who says
…for I want you to listen as I say to you that forgiveness is the recourse of the weak and we must not forgive.
Here we have a Jesus who is weakened because power leaves him when he performs miracles, who has a thirst for fame and renown, who makes sarcastic jokes at the expense of his disciples, who is talked into reluctantly resurrecting a man by the man’s two sisters (a miracle which all involved almost immediately regret, especially Lazarus, the man resurrected, who turns to drink because he cannot cope).
This is challenging stuff. The men in this book do not fare well. The Jesus presented in this book does not seem to be the kind of person who would attract thousands of followers during his life and billions afterwards. (But then, the “billions afterwards” are following the Jesus presented by the male-dominated version of the story.)
Overall, I found this to be a very uneven book. It started out challengingly and started to draw me in. The stories of the women are challenging and interesting. I struggle with the Jesus it presents, but I acknowledge this might just be 50 years of programming in my brain. If it had just been the stories of the women, it could easily have been a 4 or 5 star book for me, but the interpretation of the men in the book, especially Jesus, made it a struggle for me.
3.5 stars rounded down for now.
My thanks to the publisher for an ARC via NetGalley.
August 8, 2021
The books they will call untrue because they are true and the truths they will call heresy because it casts them as heretics. Know they will shame your name because you are the future. They will say there is only one true church when there are as many as there are tongues upon the earth. They will fall upon the weak and take their extortion, for they are usurpers grown rich in the citadels of Rome.
The story of Jesus' life has been written by men, some who were there and others who heard what happened. Jeet Thayil writes the story of Jesus from the women's perspective, fifteen voices who crossed Jesus' path. Some were disciples and followed him on his wanderings. Others were more distantly connected, whether married to Herrod or the story of Salome deftly incorporated into this chorus of voices.
The book took me a while to settle into because, as each chapter begins, another voice takes over the telling of this story and it isn't until the last sentence when we find out who is speaking now. The story is not linear, so we read about different parts of Jesus' life.
What I found powerful is the fact that throughout history, women's voices and experiences are largely silent and omitted, but Jeet Thayil brings these women's voices to the reader. Regardless of whether you are a Christian or were raised as one, the focus on women's experiences and thoughts is a powerful one.
But then some of his men write the stories down and turn them into gospels in which his brothers are mentioned by name and his sisters are not. She and Lydia are never named. They are hidden away like shameful family secrets. Two of her brothers also write popular versions of his life, James first, then Jude, and she and her sister are left out.
The story of Jesus' life has been written by men, some who were there and others who heard what happened. Jeet Thayil writes the story of Jesus from the women's perspective, fifteen voices who crossed Jesus' path. Some were disciples and followed him on his wanderings. Others were more distantly connected, whether married to Herrod or the story of Salome deftly incorporated into this chorus of voices.
The book took me a while to settle into because, as each chapter begins, another voice takes over the telling of this story and it isn't until the last sentence when we find out who is speaking now. The story is not linear, so we read about different parts of Jesus' life.
What I found powerful is the fact that throughout history, women's voices and experiences are largely silent and omitted, but Jeet Thayil brings these women's voices to the reader. Regardless of whether you are a Christian or were raised as one, the focus on women's experiences and thoughts is a powerful one.
But then some of his men write the stories down and turn them into gospels in which his brothers are mentioned by name and his sisters are not. She and Lydia are never named. They are hidden away like shameful family secrets. Two of her brothers also write popular versions of his life, James first, then Jude, and she and her sister are left out.
May 2, 2023
One of the best reads of this year! ❤️
July 18, 2025
I started this during Easter, and it was the perfect time to read it. either you want it or not, Jezus life, and Christian history seems to be everywhere. I would open the TV and find the movie of the life of Christ playing. I would open my phone and be overwhelmed with pictures of acquaintances and friends either sharing their Easter holidays and their village's church or memes about how much they will eat during Easter Sunday.
...But well as it is evident, I finished it after three months. Despite finding Names Of the Women extremely original and thought-provoking I could not read it in one go. After some thought, I am positive that. the reason why I couldn't get into this very easily was the non linear narrative and the fact that each chapter begins with another voice of a silenced woman whose name is given to us only at the end of the chapter. However I still find it extremely interesting and I think that is kind of narration was very fitting for the subject matter of this novel, so this isn't me complaining.
This was a very interesting and bizarre experience. Reading this felt refreshing, tragic, and powerful, a breath of fresh air upon the clearcut narrative of Christ's life, only told by the male disciples. the history of Christ and the church has always been predominantly written and told by men, leaving women as mere characters of liminal importance or of no voice of their own, despite the fact that there were a lot of women following him. And this book, full of lyricism and amazing passages, turns this tradition completely by giving voice to the preliminary, by allowing them to share the history for once. Certainly dazzling and leaves you wondering everything that has been silenced under the patriarchal history of Christianity and we will never learn...
8/13
...But well as it is evident, I finished it after three months. Despite finding Names Of the Women extremely original and thought-provoking I could not read it in one go. After some thought, I am positive that. the reason why I couldn't get into this very easily was the non linear narrative and the fact that each chapter begins with another voice of a silenced woman whose name is given to us only at the end of the chapter. However I still find it extremely interesting and I think that is kind of narration was very fitting for the subject matter of this novel, so this isn't me complaining.
This was a very interesting and bizarre experience. Reading this felt refreshing, tragic, and powerful, a breath of fresh air upon the clearcut narrative of Christ's life, only told by the male disciples. the history of Christ and the church has always been predominantly written and told by men, leaving women as mere characters of liminal importance or of no voice of their own, despite the fact that there were a lot of women following him. And this book, full of lyricism and amazing passages, turns this tradition completely by giving voice to the preliminary, by allowing them to share the history for once. Certainly dazzling and leaves you wondering everything that has been silenced under the patriarchal history of Christianity and we will never learn...
8/13
September 18, 2022
In the vein Hallie Rubenhold’s “The Five, the untold lives of the women killed by Jack the Ripper” the Names of the Women follows the lives of those women displaced by the gospels and the church & lost to history as they coincide with Christ’s movements.
Not a religious book in any sense & routinely disparaging of the 12 disciples who are depicted as spineless sycophants, but one that reinserts women as meaningful, complex & also flawed characters in the narrative, in their own right.
Not a religious book in any sense & routinely disparaging of the 12 disciples who are depicted as spineless sycophants, but one that reinserts women as meaningful, complex & also flawed characters in the narrative, in their own right.
September 22, 2022
3.5 -
I found this book so hard to read- i was confused for most of it. But i managed to get really captivated by some of the chapters and characters. Really great concept- but i dont know enough about the testament to fully appreciate it.
I found this book so hard to read- i was confused for most of it. But i managed to get really captivated by some of the chapters and characters. Really great concept- but i dont know enough about the testament to fully appreciate it.
April 24, 2024
creia que iba a ser una reinterpretacion feminista de la biblia pero es la biblia con alguna que otra mujer, que soberano peñazo de libro. Me ha hecho replantearme si sé o no inglés
April 2, 2021
I found this book quite disturbing but also very thought provoking. I like the concept of the story and the writing about the women was good but the portrayal of the men, including Jesus, seemed extremely harsh.
April 4, 2021
The author reclaims the stories of the women who were part of Jesus' story. This is a book full of compassion and faith. I say the latter because too often I feel as if a retelling of the gospel is used as an opportunity by those who have lost their faith to get revenge by trashing the gospel message. Here there is huge respect for the Christian message, whilst acknowledging that Scripture is a male edit of the story.
I did not really understand why the stories were told in the order that they were, unless it is to underscore the fragmentary nature of the official account, or to make it seems like witness statements being gathered up.
This is a keeper to go back to.
I did not really understand why the stories were told in the order that they were, unless it is to underscore the fragmentary nature of the official account, or to make it seems like witness statements being gathered up.
This is a keeper to go back to.
December 5, 2020
Stories of women whose lives overlapped with the life of Christ. Their voices finally heard, because with the passing of time the Church refuse to record their names.
They always endure and as is said in the book, they endure longer than the men.
Beautifully written.
They always endure and as is said in the book, they endure longer than the men.
Beautifully written.
December 28, 2024
Wspaniała! Szczególnie mocno polecam katolikom!🕉️
A jako lekture uzupełniającą Briana Muraresku i "Mity Greckie" Gravesa.
A jako lekture uzupełniającą Briana Muraresku i "Mity Greckie" Gravesa.
August 28, 2022
In 1945 a collection of early Christian scriptures were discovered, sealed in a jar, at Nag Hammadi in Egypt. These so-called ‘Gnostic Gospels’, buried when they became dangerously heretical in the 4th century CE, revealed a very different picture of Jesus than the gospels of the New Testament. Most revelatory are those texts showing Mary Magdalene as Jesus’s most important disciple, far above the men in understanding. She is described as the ‘Woman who knew the All’. The disciples’ jealousy of her – particularly Peter’s – is palpable. Mary was labelled a prostitute by Pope Gregory I in 591 CE on zero evidence; the time-honoured way to dismiss a woman’s power and voice.
Names of the Women takes inspiration from these revelations. Thayil's astonishing book takes the form of Jesus’s final words to Mary as he suffers on the cross: “Write, Mary, write it down and seal it in a jar for those who will find it in two thousand years.” It is interspersed with the stories of other women, some named in the Bible, such as Martha and Mary, sisters of Lazarus; Salome, who demands John the Baptist’s head on a plate. Others, he imagines: the wife of the penitent thief; Lydia and Assia, Jesus’s forgotten sisters. It is a remarkable reclamation of the lives of the women surrounding Jesus, those who funded his mission, and who were erased, slandered and discarded by the later church. Thayil’s Jesus is a complicated character, at times angry, confused, even vengeful. But at the very last, he understands what truly matters: what his God does or does not require, and who remains: the women who never abandoned him.
Names of the Women takes inspiration from these revelations. Thayil's astonishing book takes the form of Jesus’s final words to Mary as he suffers on the cross: “Write, Mary, write it down and seal it in a jar for those who will find it in two thousand years.” It is interspersed with the stories of other women, some named in the Bible, such as Martha and Mary, sisters of Lazarus; Salome, who demands John the Baptist’s head on a plate. Others, he imagines: the wife of the penitent thief; Lydia and Assia, Jesus’s forgotten sisters. It is a remarkable reclamation of the lives of the women surrounding Jesus, those who funded his mission, and who were erased, slandered and discarded by the later church. Thayil’s Jesus is a complicated character, at times angry, confused, even vengeful. But at the very last, he understands what truly matters: what his God does or does not require, and who remains: the women who never abandoned him.
October 1, 2025
now i don't usually write reviews, i feel that all art is subjective to the reader, but i have to for this book.
it is without doubt one of the most beautiful things that i have ever read. i absolutely challenge you to not feel the tears and emotion welling inside you at the end of *every chapter.
for me it stands as a stark showing of the lot of women everywhere since our power was taken from us, but it also stands as a call to recollect that and to strive to reclaim it both for our own genuine unique selves, and for all of the women of the past so mistreated, all of the women of the present, fighting for respect and freedoms, and all of the women of the future who need us to continue what's is right.
i urge you to read it.
it is without doubt one of the most beautiful things that i have ever read. i absolutely challenge you to not feel the tears and emotion welling inside you at the end of *every chapter.
for me it stands as a stark showing of the lot of women everywhere since our power was taken from us, but it also stands as a call to recollect that and to strive to reclaim it both for our own genuine unique selves, and for all of the women of the past so mistreated, all of the women of the present, fighting for respect and freedoms, and all of the women of the future who need us to continue what's is right.
i urge you to read it.
April 17, 2022
Propício para a época, aquele que prometia muito, acabou por desiludir. Uma sequência de capítulos, relatados pelas mulheres que, de alguma forma, se relacionaram com Cristo numa interpretação, muito livre, do autor.
Ainda que estas tenham sido, quase, banidas das escrituras reconhecidas pela igreja, não o foram da história e, como tal, será sempre bom relembrá-las ou conhecê-las. Tenho esperança que haja um fundamento histórico no relato de cada uma delas (não conheço profundamente a sua história nem tão pouco me apeteceu ir verificar). Já da especulação acerca dos seus sentimentos, duvido muito, apesar de bastante bem descritos…
Lê-se.
Ainda que estas tenham sido, quase, banidas das escrituras reconhecidas pela igreja, não o foram da história e, como tal, será sempre bom relembrá-las ou conhecê-las. Tenho esperança que haja um fundamento histórico no relato de cada uma delas (não conheço profundamente a sua história nem tão pouco me apeteceu ir verificar). Já da especulação acerca dos seus sentimentos, duvido muito, apesar de bastante bem descritos…
Lê-se.
April 12, 2022
Although I am only slightly familiar with the bible, this was a refreshing re-telling of some biblical stories, BUT from the perspective of women which have been forgotten over the years.
It is beautifuly written and some parts of it are even quite poetic!! A pleasant, quick read (which I will be picking up again in the future!)
It is beautifuly written and some parts of it are even quite poetic!! A pleasant, quick read (which I will be picking up again in the future!)
May 3, 2024
an eloquent and painful reconstruction of how much silences erase, how much the contradictions of life and history (which are the same thing) are held in place by silence. Thayil's poetic touch never falters.
April 18, 2025
This was an interesting read, and this is coming from someone who is not a believer. I enjoyed the new perspectives on stories that have been told to me ever since I was very young. Obviously not something I would usually read, but I am glad I picked it up.
May 31, 2022
Interesting read. Worth reading whether Christian or not, a pertinent reminder that no history or story of time and place can be complete if women are absent, silenced and unnamed.
February 4, 2023
This is a quite different take from Jeet—different from his other novels. He explores through the eyes of women the life of Jesus. After reading the book, I felt I am closer to Jesus than ever before..
February 26, 2023
Over the years I’ve read Lloyd C Douglas’s novel the Robe many times. Maybe it was my love for that story that made me buy this book on a whim while scrolling through Booktopia.
But Names of the Women by Jeet Thayil has torn my heart from my chest several times. It is the story of the women who stayed by the side of Christ when all others had abandoned him. At the end of the chapters their names are written. The reader is given the names of the women who were left unnamed throughout the New Testament. Their stories are finally told. I admit I wept when the first name was given.
I am not religious in any way but found it to be a beautifully told story of female strength and a genuine attempt to return these women to their place, be it good or bad, in the story.
But Names of the Women by Jeet Thayil has torn my heart from my chest several times. It is the story of the women who stayed by the side of Christ when all others had abandoned him. At the end of the chapters their names are written. The reader is given the names of the women who were left unnamed throughout the New Testament. Their stories are finally told. I admit I wept when the first name was given.
I am not religious in any way but found it to be a beautifully told story of female strength and a genuine attempt to return these women to their place, be it good or bad, in the story.
May 21, 2025
“‘Men should be useful if they want to be liked.’”
Names Of The Women tells the stories of fifteen women who are mentioned in the Bible and whose lives overlapped with the life of Jesus. Some of these women are well known, like Mary of Magdala, Martha and her sister Mary, and Mary, the mother of Jesus. Some are just mentioned in passing in the Bible like Salome, Herodias and Joanna. All are fascinating.
Jeet Thayil has drawn on traditions kept alive by Syrian Christians to recreate the stories of these fifteen women who were overlooked by the writers of the Bible. It's an interesting concept which I thought was marred by the negative light in which all the male characters are portrayed. My expectation was that there would be some balance in the narrative. Apart from that, I quite enjoyed this book which was a powerful, fast and easy read. Recommended for lovers of historical fiction who enjoy a feminist retelling.
“Kindness is a taunt to those who love cruelty.”
My rating: 3.6
Names Of The Women tells the stories of fifteen women who are mentioned in the Bible and whose lives overlapped with the life of Jesus. Some of these women are well known, like Mary of Magdala, Martha and her sister Mary, and Mary, the mother of Jesus. Some are just mentioned in passing in the Bible like Salome, Herodias and Joanna. All are fascinating.
Jeet Thayil has drawn on traditions kept alive by Syrian Christians to recreate the stories of these fifteen women who were overlooked by the writers of the Bible. It's an interesting concept which I thought was marred by the negative light in which all the male characters are portrayed. My expectation was that there would be some balance in the narrative. Apart from that, I quite enjoyed this book which was a powerful, fast and easy read. Recommended for lovers of historical fiction who enjoy a feminist retelling.
“Kindness is a taunt to those who love cruelty.”
My rating: 3.6
July 31, 2022
I enjoyed this to start with and think it's a great idea for a book, however the different voices didn't feel distinct enough for me and by the end it was all starting to feel quite samey.
December 18, 2023
ik heb zo’n gevoel dat ik niet christelijk genoeg ben om dit boek helemaal te snappen
November 13, 2024
premise of this is soooo good, a look at the women who got overlooked in the worlds most famous book. A really unique read it can be quite confusing at points but worth pushing through to the end
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