Maria Elisabeth Straub Das Geschenk (The Gift) Diogenes Verlag, September 2006, 336 pp ISBN: 3-257-06539-6 Set in Nazareth 2000 years ago, this multi-layered novel has a female narrator whose much older husband is on his deathbed and not expected to live through the night. In the course of those few hours she recalls events from her early childhood, her betrothal to her husband as a twelve-year-old girl, and more generally to her experiences as a woman in the society of her time and town. Early on in the book she reflects on a discussion with a childhood friend about the various interpretations of her name, which meant 'present' or 'gift'. As for her husband, she refers to him simply as 'the wooden one' - a reference not so much to his calling as a carpenter as to his stiffness, or woodenness, of character. The third person to whom no proper name is ascribed is her first-born son, and from the start it is made clear that he is not the natural son of her husband. This son, who, at thirty, is about to leave home, she refers to throughout as 'der Mamser', the Hebrew original of which apparently means 'a child of an incestuous or adulterous union'. No prizes therefore for spotting that this is a book reinterpreting the stories of Holy Family and the Virgin Birth. The interest lies in the manner in which this is done. Written by a woman from a feminine perspective, the novel has a number of interlocking themes, deliberately intended to reflect our current concerns. We are told of the narrator's difficulties as a daughter, of how she feels damaged and let down by both her parents but tries to understand how, according to her beliefs, all this must have happened in accordance with God's will. She herself has given birth to nine children - seven sons and two daughters - one of them being the result of a secret love affair, and there are graphic descriptions of the agonies of labour and birth. Of 'the wooden one' she concludes: 'If he had accorded me the same amount of attention as he accorded his chairs, we could have had a good marriage'. A come-on for all those who like seeing the Scriptures rewritten to suit the ethos of the age.