Thayil, best known for his loose-knit trilogy of novels set in Mumbai, here draws on his Syrian Christian heritage to rework the gospel stories with imagination and integrity. At times he takes his feminist mission too far, as when Aquila claims that Jesus said not only ‘It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into heaven’, but ‘It is easier for a woman to enter heaven than for a man’, which is simply to substitute one form of exclusivity for another. But, overall, this is a bold and beguiling addition to the canon of New Testament fiction.