Magdalen Rising ─ The Beginning

In this Celtic wonder tale, prequel to Elizabeth Cunningham's acclaimed novel, The Passion of Mary Magdalen, Maeve and Jesus, brimming with youthful charm and arrogance, find each other and fall in love, forging a bond that is stronger than death. Born to eight warrio witches on one of the Shining Isles of the Celtic Otherworld, Macve is trained in her mothers' heroic arts and raised on colorful tales of her conception that agree on one point only: her father is a god, Manannan Mac Lir, no less, the god of the sea. When the Cailleach, an ancient wise woman, foresees a great, if perilous, destiny for Maeve in the wider world, Maeve's mothers reluctantly agree to send her to be trained as a bard at the famous Druid College on the Isle of Mona (Anglesey).

Maeve departs eagerly, longing to find the Mysterious Other she has glimpsed only in vision and dream. Driven by his own dreams and prophecies, a young Jew from Galilee, known to the Celts as Esus, also gains admission to the college. From the start, the two are sparring partners, by turns delighting and outraging each other with their opposing views on just about everything.

New readers and Maeve mavens alike will be moved by the tale of this young woman's courage, her bold determination to save the life of the one she loves, at whatever cost to herself. Outrageous, funny, full of heart, in Magdalen Rising Maeve grows into the woman who will become Mary Magdalen, whose passion will take her all the way to the Cross and beyond.

"Smart and Earthy...richly imaginative...the epitome of the storyteller's art."-St. Louis Post-Dispatch (chosen as one of "The Year's Best Books")

"...this is the best book I've read in a decade: beautiful, witty, wise, fearless in facing the hardest issues. The magic is visceral and as earthy as roasted hazelnuts. Cunningham has written Celtic circles around Marion Zimmer Bradley."-Ann Chamberlin, Historical Novel Society

"Cunningham plays with complex theological issues---the role of embodiment in salvation, the gender of divinity, the question of sacrifice---but she is preeminently a storyteller, and the reader engages those questions within a marvelous, romantic tale."-Patricia Monaghan Copyright © American Library Association.

Writing in the visionary tradition of C.S. Lewis, Cunningham brings fresh meaning to the concept of incarnation and opens our eyes to life on this earth, a place alive with magic and rich with divine and human mystery.

Descended from nine generations of Episcopal priests, Elizabeth Cunningham lives in the Hudson Valley. For more, visit the author's website: www.passionofmarymagdalen.com.