
The Fifth Gospel
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Jack Davenport
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By:
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Ian Caldwell
About this listen
In Ian Caldwell's masterful follow-up to his international sensation The Rule of Four, a lost Gospel, a contentious relic, and a dying pope's final wish converge to send two brothers--both Vatican priests--on an intellectual quest to untangle Christianity's greatest historical mystery.
Now, after a decade of painstaking primary research, Ian Caldwell returns with a new intellectual thriller that confirms his place among the most ambitious popular storytellers working today.
In 2004, as Pope John Paul II's reign enters its twilight, a mysterious exhibit is under construction at the Vatican Museums. A week before it is scheduled to open, its curator is murdered at a clandestine meeting on the outskirts of Rome. The same night a violent break-in rocks the home of the curator's research partner, Father Alex Andreou, a Greek Catholic priest who lives inside the Vatican with his five-year-old son. When the papal police fail to identify a suspect in either crime, Father Alex, desperate to keep his family safe, undertakes his own investigation. To find the killer he must reconstruct the dead curator's secret: what the four Christian Gospels-- and a little-known, true-to-life fifth Gospel known as the Diatessaron--reveal about the Church's most controversial holy relic. But just as he begins to understand the truth about his friend's death and its consequences for the future of the world's two largest Christian Churches, Father Alex finds himself hunted down by someone with vested stakes in the exhibit--someone he must outwit to survive.
At once a riveting literary thriller, a feast of biblical history and scholarship, and a moving family drama, The Fifth Gospel is a novel about the depths of sacrifice and the power of forgiveness. Rich, authentic, erudite, and emotionally searing, it satisfies on every level.
©2015 Ian Caldwell. All rights reserved. (P)2015 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Davenport offers a nuanced narration whether delivering Simon's secretive manner or Alex's pragmatic one.... Caldwell's uncluttered, thoughtful writing and Davenport's performance make worthwhile listening." (AudioFile)
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Overall
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There is no magic on Prospect Hill—or anywhere else, for that matter. But just on the other side of the veil is the world of the Fae. Generations ago, the first farmers on Prospect Hill learned to bargain small trades to make their lives a little easier. Much of that old wisdom was lost as the riverboats gave way to the rail lines and the farmers took work at mills and factories. Alaine Fairborn’s family, however, was always superstitious, and she still hums the rhymes to find a lost shoe and to ensure dry weather on her sister’s wedding day.
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Characters and world building
- By Amandahawkes on 02-14-24
By: Rowenna Miller
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Joan: A Novel of Joan of Arc
- By: Katherine J. Chen
- Narrated by: Hannah Morrish
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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1412. France is mired in a losing war against England. Its people are starving. Its king is in hiding. From this chaos emerges a teenage girl who will turn the tide of battle and lead the French to victory, becoming an unlikely hero whose name will echo across the centuries.
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Fascinating, Beautifully written
- By Anne Sanchez on 06-16-24
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Emily's House
- By: Amy Belding Brown
- Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Massachusetts, 1869. Margaret Maher has never been one to settle down. At 27, she's never met a man who has tempted her enough to relinquish her independence to a matrimonial fate, and she hasn't stayed in one place for long since her family fled the potato famine a decade ago. When Maggie accepts a temporary position at the illustrious Dickinson family home in Amherst, it's only to save money for her upcoming trip West to join her brothers in California. Maggie never imagines she will form a life-altering friendship with the eccentric, brilliant Miss Emily.
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Emily’s Poems
- By Elliott Wolfe, M.D. on 10-30-21
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Just an Ordinary Day
- Stories
- By: Shirley Jackson
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter, Mark Deakins, Kimberly Farr, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Acclaimed in her own time for her short story “The Lottery” and her novel The Haunting of Hill House - classics ranking with the work of Edgar Allan Poe - Shirley Jackson blazed a path for contemporary writers with her explorations of evil, madness, and cruelty. Soon after her untimely death in 1965, Jackson’s children discovered a treasure trove of previously unpublished and uncollected stories, many of which are brought together in this remarkable collection.
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Captures a Bygone Era
- By Anonymous User on 11-11-22
By: Shirley Jackson
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The Changeling
- A Novel
- By: Victor LaValle
- Narrated by: Victor LaValle
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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When Apollo Kagwa's father disappeared, all he left his son were strange recurring dreams and a box of books stamped with the word improbabilia. Now Apollo is a father himself - and as he and his wife, Emma, are settling into their new lives as parents, exhaustion and anxiety start to take their toll. Apollo's old dreams return and Emma begins acting odd.
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Fractured Fairytale
- By Diane on 08-07-17
By: Victor LaValle
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The Vivaldi Cipher
- Vatican Secret Archive Thrillers
- By: Gary McAvoy
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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During the election of a new Pope in the mid-18th century, famed violinist Antonio Vivaldi learns of a ring of art forgers who are replacing the Vatican’s priceless treasures with expertly-painted fakes. Desperate, the composer hides a message in a special melody, hoping someone, someday, will take down the culprits....
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Novel or product placement?
- By Cincyreader on 06-25-23
By: Gary McAvoy
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Darling Girl
- A Novel of Peter Pan
- By: Liz Michalski
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Life is looking up for Holly Darling, granddaughter of Wendy—yes, that Wendy. She's running a successful skincare company; her son, Jack, is happy and healthy; and the tragedy of her past is well behind her...until she gets a call that her daughter, Eden, who has been in a coma for nearly a decade, has gone missing from the estate where she's been long tucked away. And, worst of all, Holly knows who must be responsible: Peter Pan, who is not only very real, but more dangerous than anyone could imagine.
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Brilliant
- By D. D. Falvo on 05-06-22
By: Liz Michalski
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The Prophets
- By: Robert Jones Jr.
- Narrated by: Karen Chilton
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Isaiah was Samuel's and Samuel was Isaiah's. That was the way it was since the beginning, and the way it was to be until the end. In the barn they tended to the animals, but also to each other, transforming the hollowed-out shed into a place of human refuge, a source of intimacy and hope in a world ruled by vicious masters. But when an older man - a fellow slave - seeks to gain favor by preaching the master's gospel on the plantation, the enslaved begin to turn on their own.
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LOVED IT
- By Des on 04-18-21
By: Robert Jones Jr.
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The Slaughterman's Daughter
- A Novel
- By: Yaniv Iczkovits
- Narrated by: Tovah Feldshuh
- Length: 17 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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With her reputation as a vilde chaya (wild animal), Fanny Keismann isn’t like the other women in her shtetl in the Pale of Settlement - certainly not her obedient and anxiety-ridden sister, Mende, whose “philosopher” of a husband has run off to Minsk, abandoning her and their two children. As a young girl, Fanny felt an inexorable pull toward her father’s profession of ritual slaughterer and, under his reluctant guidance, became a master with a knife. And though she long ago gave up that unsuitable profession, Fanny still keeps the knife tied to her right leg.
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The narration - why?????
- By agarista on 07-20-21
By: Yaniv Iczkovits
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Charlatans
- By: Robin Cook
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Newly minted chief resident at Boston Memorial Hospital Noah Rothauser is swamped in his new position, from managing the surgical schedules to dealing with the fallouts from patient deaths. Known for its medical advances, the famed teaching hospital has fitted several ORs as "hybrid operating rooms of the future" - an improvement that seems positive until an anesthesia error during a routine procedure results in the death of an otherwise healthy man.
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Social engineering at its best
- By donna on 08-30-17
By: Robin Cook
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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
- By: Junot Díaz
- Narrated by: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Karen Olivo
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fuku: the curse that has haunted Oscar's family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim.
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Lin-Manuel Miranda's performance is perfect
- By Alison on 02-27-18
By: Junot Díaz
Also, this is one of those books that takes you immediately to reviews of the work, details of the author's research, and wikipedia - loved being introduced to ancient manuscripts, unfamiliar branches of the Catholic Church, and new "evidence" about controversies like that surrounding the Shroud of Turin.
But there's no denying that there is much of the "deja vu" feeling about "The Fifth Gospel." Intriguing and thoughtful it may be, but it has been done before.
So a recommendation here is tricky. If you like religious and literary mysteries (with or without the conspiracy theories), then I'm pretty sure you'll like this. I went along quite willingly with the story and with the really wonderful narration of Jack Davenport.
Yes, but, "Been There; Done That"
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gives one hope of a new beguining
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Interesting plot
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waste of time if you are already a bible scholar
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excellent
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Use of the Vatican setting was well done
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Initially Enjoyed. Then Became Tiresome.
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This was an excellent story. very well done.
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Intriguing premise, especially if Christian theology and the historicity of Jesus is of interest.
each would-be ending got more tense
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A beautiful story
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