Ahasver

by Stefan Heym

"According to the myth of the Wandering Jew, Ahasverus denied Christ a resting place while Christ was traveling to Golgotha. In turn, Ahasverus was cursed to roam the earth until the Second Coming. Stefan Heym's novel The Wandering Jew re-creates and expands this myth to propose that the right synthesis of love and rebellion can bring human-kind to the Kingdom of Heaven."--BOOK JACKET. "Beginning at the Beginning, Heym introduces both Ahasverus and Lucifer as angels in free fall, cast out of heaven for their opinions of God's order. The story follows their respective oppositions through the rest of time: Ahasverus defiant through protest rooted in love and a faith in progress, and Lucifer rebellious by means of his biblically familiar methods. In a doggedly funny eternity of run-ins, debates, and meddling with such characters as Christ, a disciple of Martin Luther, and a twentieth-century Marxist professor in East Germany, Ahasverus and Lucifer struggle on, awaiting the Second Coming."