The questions, discussion topics, and suggestions for further reading that follow are designed to enhance your group’s discussion of Anne Rice’s extraordinary novel about the early years of Jesus. Rice, well known for her ability to weave compelling plots and characters against a richly detailed and meticulously researched historical background, journeys to the first century and brings to life the religious beliefs and traditions, the political turmoil, and the family secrets that marked the beginning of Jesus’ mission on earth.
Told in the voice of the seven-year-old Jesus, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt is the story of his return to the Holy Land after years of exile in Egypt and his gradual—at times fearful—acceptance of the wonders and the mysteries that set him apart from all others. Rice draws on close examinations of the Gospels, the Apocrypha, and the work of respected Biblical scholars and historians to re-create Jesus’ world, and in a daring, profoundly moving portrait, imagines how Jesus felt as he came to understand and embrace his destiny.