Quarantine (Jim Crace novel)

Quarantine is a novel by Jim Crace. It was the winner of the 1997 Whitbread Novel Award, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction the same year.

Plot summary

Set in the Judean desert, 2000 years ago. It features 7 main characters:

Musa: a greedy trader, believed by the Galilean to be a manifestation of Satan
Miri: Musa's pregnant wife
Marta: fasting between dawn and dusk in an attempt to turn her barren womb fertile
Shim: a young traveller
Aphas: fasting between dawn and dusk in an attempt to remove the cancer from his abdomen
Badu: believed to be deaf and mute; good at catching animals
The Galilean/Gally/Jesus: aiming to fast for 40 days and nights with divine help; plagued by religious/spiritual hallucinations/visions. Dies in the novel only to be seen during the end, risen.