“Adriana Valerio’s brilliant Mary Magdalene: Women, the Church and the Great Deception is essential reading for anyone who cares about Church history and gender equality, rigorously condensing a wealth of feminist research into a concise volume for a wide readership. Wendy Wheatley’s beautiful translation captures Valerio’s passionate cadence, rendering her elegantly captivating Italian prose into English without flattening its nuances, nor diluting its urgency. I suspect that this spellbinding journey into the folds of history will prove particularly enticing to women, lay and faithful alike. In the wake of the #MeToo movement and debates surrounding sex work, Valerio’s investigation speaks to our times with impressive relevance, prompting us to contextualise our current struggles in a historical perspective.”
Read the full review in Reading in Translation.
