DEAD OR ALIVE

In Kelley's novel, a Catholic priest analyzes a potentially historically significant manuscript about a post-crucifixion manhunt for Jesus Christ.

Father Thomas Mann teaches Christian history at Columbia University in 2029. His quiet life is upended when he gets a middle-of-the-night phone call from his friend Miles, a prestigious archaeologist. Miles has discovered an astoundingly intact trove of scrolls in a tomb in Kashmir and has already authenticated them; however, he doesn’t have the skills necessary to translate the Latin contained within, which is where Father Mann comes in. Although initially reluctant, Mann agrees to fly to Kashmir, where he will have three months at a secluded monastery to translate the scrolls before the state destroys them as “blasphemy.” Upon setting to work, Mann discovers that the scrolls follow Marcus Decia, a disgraced tribune, and his companions Poet and Boy as they search for Jesus after he has reportedly risen from the dead. They are hounded by another, much less honorable pair of bounty hunters, and their clashes provide much of the novel’s action. The trio eventually intersects with Bhagawati Ma, a “blissful spiritual woman” from India who helps guide them not only to the man they’re seeking but also to inner peace and religious belief. Aside from the clashes with the rival bounty hunters, the majority of the narrative focuses on ethical and religious deliberations. While Boy was enslaved by Marcus after his village fell to the Romans in battle, the text is primarily concerned with maintaining Marcus’ honorable and irreproachable character—rather than honestly interrogating the undeniable contradictions this entails, the story goes to great pains to affirm that Boy actually wants to be and continues to benefit from being enslaved. Poet, as the name suggests, is the chronicler of the group; he is immediately invested in the chase as a storyteller, providing much of the novel’s perspective. Interludes in which Mann reflects with a friendly monk, Lama Chinchinanaga, break up the narrative as Mann drily muses about the implications of the text and whether the pope will want it to see the light of day.

A somewhat repetitive yarn brimming with theological musings for readers with an interest in Christian philosophy.