I wrote a memoir about the collision of feminism and my faith tradition, called 'The Dance of the Dissident Daughter'. I left the Baptist Church, became an Episcopalian.

But it was not until I was an adult that I began to question my faith and question a lot of things, and grew more spiritual and less religious. My family was never really overly religious or fundamentalist or strongly evangelical, which probably was a little saving for me. It was a small town with only two churches, so it was Methodists and Baptists. Well, I grew up in Georgia in a, I guess you would call it an evangelical, Protestant church. So, give us a sense, if you don't mind- just give us a sense of your religious background and how you came to this story. So many have said to me, 'Well, I was a little nervous about it, but I'm so glad that I read it because it has given me this whole new appreciation for the humanity of Jesus.' So yes, it's going way, way out on the literary limb, isn't it? But I'm, I'm- I feel very passionate about the story and very strongly about it. I suspect there will be some who will not want to read about a fictional life of Jesus and reimagine history in that way. And so captivated by it, that there really was no turning back. The moment the idea struck me, I was hooked. But I- from the very beginning, I longed to write this book. Well, I'm not sure I ever I really said that. So what brought you to this point? It seems that whenever you tackle the Bible, the subject of Jesus and having a wife, you're taking on quite a lot.

Thank you so much for being with us, what a delight to have you on the program. Again, the latest is 'The Book of Longings'.Īnd it's a great pleasure to welcome Sue Monk Kidd to this week's Book Show. Her other novels include 'The Mermaid Chair' and 'The Invention of Wings'. The story evokes a seminal question: how would the world be different if Jesus had had a wife? Sue Monk Kidd's debut, 'The Secret Life of Bees' spent more than 100 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, it has sold more than 6 million copies. In particular, this novel explores the longings and virtuosities in women, as well as their silencing and marginalization within Western religion. The novel explores many of the signature themes in Kidd's fiction: feminism, the search for self, the quest for one's voice and purpose, and the power of female community. In Sue Monk Kidd's, new novel, 'The Book of Longing', she imagines a young woman named Ana, who becomes the wife of Jesus. Joe Donahue: Welcome to The Book Show, a celebration of reading and writers.

The book of longing by sue monk kidd