LA TRISTEZA DEL ZELOTA

Paul of Tarsus once appealed to Philemon on the behalf Onesimus, an escaped slave. We know this from what is the shortest of Saint Paul's epistles. However, we have no idea whether Philemon took any notice and welcomed the escaped slave into his home, or if instead, he ignored Paul's pleas and punished Onesimus as the law dictated. Martí Colom recreates this episode in an agile and entertaining novel set in the 1st century as Christianity was taking it's first steps in the world. Through Arquipo, Apia and a cast of other characters the author leads us to reflect about fanaticism, and how Jesus's Evangelist can either light the way to freedom or, misinterpreted, be an excuse for intolerance.