This review was first published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.
In the intricate, elegantly written The Gospel According to the New World by Maryse Condé (Waiting for the Waters to Rise; Of Morsels and Marvels), a miracle child searches for the mission that will bring meaning to his life and finds it in ordinary existence. A couple who has desperately longed for a child finds newborn infant Pascal in a stable one Easter morning. The child is beautiful, and of indeterminate but apparently mixed race, and he becomes the subject of rumors that he may be the younger son of God. He begins to understand, as he grows and learns about his marvelous origins, that there is something he should do to make the world a better place. But even though stories of miracles begin to be attributed to him, he can't discover what that something might be.
Condé starts by hitting the major beats of the Gospels: a humble yet remarkable birth, healings, feeding the multitudes and acclamation from the masses--followed by ridicule and betrayal. But in this meditative bildungsroman, the potential messiah, once he discovers his origins, searches in vain for his purpose and for connection with his biological father. There is meaning in and of itself in the friendship and love he discovers during his search. This meditative novel, translated from the French by Richard Philcox, will leave readers with much to ponder: Is Pascal ordinary after all, or could it be that the whole world is extraordinary? --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library

This review was first published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.
​The perspectives of three women reveal the cruel, damaged man behind the hero of legend in The Shadow of Perseus, the second inventive reinterpretation of Greek mythology from Claire Heywood (Daughters of Sparta). Danae's father's attempt to thwart the prophecy that her son will be his ruin goes just as badly as such attempts normally do, leaving Danae in exile but pregnant and alive to raise her son, Perseus. Danae tells her son that he's a son of Zeus, conceived in a shower of golden rain. Perseus fears being thought of as weaker than the other boys and, far beyond the age when Danae expected him to realize what everybody else already knew, clings to the belief that he's destined for greatness. He sets out on a voyage meant to make him into a man, which leads him to a reclusive band of women known as the Gorgons--and to Medusa, whose kindness to him becomes her downfall. Andromeda, whom he carries away from her people, finds a determination to survive and, if possible, temper him.
In some ways, this is a bleaker work than Heywood's previous reimagination of Greek myth. This Perseus is an archetype of fragile, toxic masculinity, and readers follow the points of view of women whose lives are upended, at best, in his wake. Yet a strand of hope for an uplifting resolution remains, as those who survive find their voices and learn to mold their own futures. Fans of Madeline Miller's Circe will be enthralled. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library