Bethany

A new short novel from Adam Roberts, available only as an e-book. "Bethany" is a time-travel narrative in the tradition of Moorcock's "Behold the Man", and a theological novel in the tradition of Nabokov's "Invitation to a Beheading". A time traveler returns to the Holy Land in the early years of the first-century AD with the following macabre mission: to shoot Jesus with a 21st-century rifle, *after* he has been crucified and resurrected but *before* he ascends to heaven. Is he a radical atheist? An agent of Satan? Or does he intend to test the status of the post-resurrection Jesus? We might assume that such an action would have three possible outcomes: Christ might be simple killed, and remain dead; Christ might be killed and then simply re-resurrect; or Christ might prove unkillable. But could so blasphemous an action be motivated by mere curiosity?

The novel is in two parts: the first set in modern times and the second in Roman Palestine. The whole is 35,000 words in length.