I’ve always been a bookworm. I don’t remember learning how to read; by the time I was 7 I was devouring adult-level books. At about 9 I started torturing my mother on a regular basis. It went something like this: 

“I’ve read all the books in the house! Do we have any new ones? I want something to read!”

“No, we haven’t gotten any new books since the last time you asked five days ago.”

My favorite smells are old musty book and new crisp book, and if you take me to a bookstore or library you might want to tie a string to my finger so you can find me and drag me home. 

So when I find a new book, and it’s well-written, I feel like Christmas morning. Lamb, by Christopher Moore, was such a gift. 

If you’re a Christian and you take your religion very seriously, I should probably tell you not to read this book. But then you would miss something pretty amazing, and you’d probably still be offended. So let it not be said that I warned you off. 

Lamb is the story of Jesus’ silent years, his childhood and young manhood, as imagined by Moore and told by Biff, his best friend. It is neither a religious tribute nor an attempt at historical fiction. Rather, it is a series of untethered, enchanted answers to the questions left by the story of Jesus as told in the canonical gospels. 

While Moore makes no attempt to tell “what really happened”, he has done extensive research into the culture and mind of the age. He draws on the New Testament, on the rejected gospels, and on popular myth to craft a picture of Christ’s humanity and divinity, as well as an incredible friendship that spans continents and centuries. 

Why should you read Lamb? If you’re a believer, it’s likely to shake you up. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing; while nothing Moore says is gospel (and he makes no pretense that it is), it’s easy to get in a rut. Lamb will give you new eyes through which to view the old, old story. 

If you’re not a believer, Lamb offers a dose of the miraculous that we tend to lose when we leave childhood. You need unanswered questions and incredible stories and impossible scenarios to keep you from turning into a grinch. Lamb is all those things and more. 

Plus, it’s funny. Everyone needs more laughter. 

Equal parts reverence and sacrilege, Moore’s story of Christ stands like a secret garden of possibilities in a world of highways and belching factories. It’s one of those places you can go back to again and again and always be better for it. 

Disclaimer: no one is paying me for this post. I just really like the book!