Perpetua

Perpetua, a 19 year old girl from South London, says that she is God. She gathers a motley collection of followers and begins her travels, performing miracles and spreading her gospel of unconditional love along the way. Her message provokes a strong and ultimately lethal reaction from Christianity's warring factions, politicians and journalists bent on profit instead of the truth. Her story is told by four people: Jack, a tabloid journalist; Claire, a social worker; Beth, a media student; and Damian, a theology graduate and Church House intern. Perpetua is the first of three novels in The Third Testament for the Third Millennium, a bold re-telling of the New Testament in a 21st Century context, asking Christians to question what they believe and why. Incorporating a dazzling array of artistic styles, convention-breaking use of language and sharply drawn characters, the series draws on its author's experience of journalism, broadcasting and politics, and on his work as a lay minister in the Church of England. It is profound and funny, moving and edgy, setting out how we might better live together with more self-restraint and less regulation.