Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: (413) 597-4277; email: [email protected]
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Feb. 16, 2004 – Local author Paul Park has a new book out – “Three Marys,” a historical fiction about the story of Christ. Park, who is also the author of “The Gospel of Cora,” is also part-time lecturer in English at Williams College.
Park will give a reading from the book at Water Street Books in Williamstown on Thursday, Feb. 19. The event is scheduled from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
Park retells the stories of the New Testament through the voices of the three women most devoted to Christ: Mary, Jeshua’s mother, Mary Magdala, Jeshua’s supposed wife, and Mary of Bethany, Lazarus’ sister who followed Jesus during his final days.
The novel has earned rave reviews from the critics:
“This is the story not only of Christ but of the three Marys who survived him and were true to him, each in their own way,” editorialized amazon.com. “Their inner and outer narratives, sometimes tortured, sometimes rhapsodic, make up the spare but radiant tapestry of this novel.”
“[The book is a] beautiful and imaginative retelling of the material of the Gospels,” said Alan Cheuse on National Public Radio. “As Park portrays [the three Marys], they’re quite the trio of spirit, devotion, determination and vital flesh and blood.”
“Eloquent and mesmerizing,” said science fiction author Lucius Shepard. “… It seems that the novel is less an astonishing recreation and re-estimation of those days than the product of brilliant observation. Paul Park’s body of work concerning Jesus and his milieu is unique in American letters.”
Park’s novels usually fall into the science fantasy and religious historical fiction genres. He is the author of “Soldiers of Paradise” (1987), “Sugar Rain” (1989), and “The Cult of Loving Kindness” (1991), which compose The Starbridge Chronicles trilogy.
Park has been compared to sci-fi greats Gene Wolfe and Brian Aldiss. His “Soldiers of Paradise” was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award and “The Cult of Loving Kindness” was named a New York Times “Notable Book.” In 2002, Park received recognition for his story “If Lions Could Speak: Imagining the Alien,” which was nominated for the British Science Fiction Association Award for best Short Fiction.
Park’s shorter stories have been published in Interzone, Full Spectrum 5, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Omni, Azimov’s, and The New York Review of Science Fiction.
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Williams College is consistently ranked one of the nation’s top liberal arts colleges. The college’s 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their undergraduate teaching. The achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in research. Admission decisions are made regardless of a student’s financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted. Founded in 1793, it is the second oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college is located in Williamstown, Mass. To visit the college on the Internet: www.williams.edu
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Published February 16, 2004
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