Yosef and Maryam is a love story. It is a work of fiction based on
the historical New Testament characters of Joseph and Mary, the
parents of Jesus. Original Aramaic/Hebrew names are given to all
the characters and places, so as to stress their normality. In the
New Testament, Joseph is mentioned in but a few sentences, then
disappears from the account altogether, without as much as a mere
mention of his passing. The novel tries to fill this gap in with a
fictional account that portrays the purely human aspect of these
biblical characters: they weren't born saints, and there wasn't
really any need for them to lead saintly lives. Indeed, it is
because they were merely human that they suffered greatly, as God
keeps expecting more and more of them. This is particularly so in
the case of Joseph, for it is explicit in the New Testament that
Mary had a paranormal vision about her forthcoming conception,
whereas Joseph only had a dream to go by. Mary was pre-informed,
and even asked, whereas Joseph was faced with a fait accompli.
There was also a pain-filled interlude between his hearing that his
betrothed was pregnant by someone else, and his relief-bestowing
dream. Also, he still must have had to live the rest of his life
knowing that his first-born was not really his; and this, in a
small Middle-Eastern village where it can expected one's business
was everybody's business. The novel has a unique form of dramatic
irony to it. Many of its readers would be familiar with the events
of the New Testament, so they would be aware of what is coming next
and of the deeper, symbolic meaning of the scenes events as they
unfold. Yosef and Maryam is a love story also in the sense that it
is a story about different types of Love: Romantic Love, Parental
Love, Love for one's neighbour, and Love for God. It explores how
these different emotions interact, and poses the question which
ought to take precedence, should a choice have to be made. It is a
story about the pain that must necessarily accompany all true love:
the inevitable concomitant pain of jealousy, worry, fear, and loss.
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