In July 1099, the walled city of Jerusalem is said
to have experienced religious peace and tolerance - Jews, Muslims and
Christians worshipped without incident. But beyond the gates of the city,
enemy crusaders sharpened their swords, readying to invade the populace and
disturb the peace. The people were given a choice to either abandon the city or
fight to the death. Most chose to stay.
In Manuscript
Found in Accra, Paulo Coelho has written a transcription of a fictional
Apocryphal Gospel (not included in any holy religious book), documenting what
one prophet, a Greek named Copt, revealed to multitudes on the night before the
attack that transformed peace into a war that Copt predicted "will last
into an unimaginably distant future."
One wonders why the people gathered to listen to
Copt? After all, the manuscript reveals that Copt worked as a shoemaker and did
not belong to any one religious sect. What encouraged the inhabitants to defer
from making provisions and feeding their anxiety and preoccupation in the face
of death and forced exodus to stop and listen? Were the masses who hunkered
down simply looking for a way to allay their fears and deepen their faith?
By choosing to leave missing pieces and unanswered
questions, Coelho lends greater authenticity to the form and tenor of this
novel-turned-gospel-narrative. In Coelho's
literary hands, one questions the role of coincidence. Is Copt's name a
coincidence or a relation to Coptic Christians? And what about the setting--the
square where Pontius Pilate and the crowds condemned Jesus Christ to death? Here, Copt
makes his philosophical declarations on a myriad of issues including knowledge,
death, work, miracles, loyalty and the future and encourages listeners to write
down his words in order to "preserve the soul of Jerusalem" as he
believes that peace will one day reign in the region again.
Fitting, too, that Coelho chose not to support this
novel with a traditional literary plot, outside of the introduction that briefly details the long, circuitous route the manuscript takes until discovered.
Instead, Coelho's parable-like structure and historical presentation heighten
the relevance of wisdom shared a thousand years ago to people in peril. Read in
the context of modern society--with its wars, terror, divisiveness and
decadence--Manuscript Found in Accra
points up how the world has continued to be invaded by "demons of
intolerance and lack of understanding" for centuries and yet, amid
adversity, there still remains the hope that tenets of love and faith can
endure, if consciously cultivated.
Manuscript
Found in Accra by Paulo Coelho (Translated from the Portuguese by Margaret
Jull Costa)
Alfred
A. Knopf, $22.00, Hardcover, 9780385349833, 208
pp
Publication
Date: April 3, 2013
Please
note: This book was provided for review by Alfred A. Knopf Publishers and TLC Book Tours.