Audio Book Review of Iscariot by Tosca Lee narrated by Jason Cusp

Iscariot by Tosca Lee
Narrated by Jason Cusp

From Goodreads.com
 In Jesus, Judas believes he has found the One—a miracle-worker. The promised Messiah and future king of the Jews, destined to overthrow Roman rule. Galvanized, Judas joins the Nazarene’s followers, ready to enact the change he has waited for all his life.

But Judas’ vision of a nation free from Roman rule is crushed by the inexplicable actions of the Nazarene himself, who will not bow to social or religious convention—who seems in the end to even turn against his own people. At last, Judas must confront the fact that the master he loves is not the liberator he hoped for, but a man bent on a drastically different agenda.

Iscariot is the story of Judas—from his tumultuous childhood and tenuous entry into a career and family life as a devout Jew, to a man known to the world as the betrayer of Jesus. But even more, it is a singular and surprising view into the life of Jesus himself that forces us all to reexamine everything we thought we knew about the most famous—and infamous—religious icons in history.

My Take:  If ever there was a person in history beside Hitler and Stalin and a few other dictators or crazy people that you  wouldn't want to have empathy for it would be Judas the betrayer of Jesus.  Tosca Lee does just that.  She takes us from his childhood and takes us all the way through his life and shows us not a horrible person or terrible person but a person who was trying to live his life through the Roman persecution and waiting anxiously for the Messiah to come and deliver the Jewish nation.  But Judas is expecting a military leader and Jesus is just not that.  Tosca Lee paints a picture of the life and times back then that at times you feel like you are transported back and you are right there with the characters.  This book makes you stop and think about what you would do if you were in Judas' sandals. It's easy to make judgements through the lens of history but what would you have done?  I am not excuseing what he did but I am just saying that we need to take a long hard look at ourselves. 

I received a review copy of this audiobook from Simon and Schuster Audio  and  in exchange for my honest opinion .