Read Mary Storyline:
Starting with a dark-skinned girl barely out of adolescence when she gives birth, Lesley Hazleton weaves together the many facets of Mary's existence: peasant villager, wise woman and healer, activist, mother, teacher, and yes, virgin, though in a sense we have long forgotten. She follows her through the worst any mother can experience-the excruciating death of her child-and then looks at how she transforms grief into wisdom, disaster into renewal. Strong and courageous, the Mary we see here does not merely assent to her role in history, but chooses it and lives it to the fullest. Lesley Hazleton is the award-winning author of eight books, including Jerusalem, Jerusalem and Where Mountains Roar; her work has appeared in the New York Times, Harper's, Parade, Esquire, Vanity Fair, Mirabella, and the Nation. "Mary has the starch of real history to it...[Hazleton's] writing flows like wine and readers of fiction as well as history will enjoy it...Hazleton adds a layer to the Mary...Pages of Mary :