‘What if the first five chapters of the bible weren’t about good and evil at all?’ Fivefold is a mystical thriller filled with misconceptions and untruths in the Bible and the traditions of a brotherhood, known as the Kabbalah. James, Morgan, Eric, Ashvin and Elise, a close-knit group of friends at university but with limited contact since, are thrust together in circumstances they could never have imagined.
Fivefold (Nathan Burrage, Bantam, $32.95 tpb, ISBN 9781863255851, January 2008) **
‘What if the first five chapters of the bible weren’t about good and evil at all?’ Fivefold is a mystical thriller filled with misconceptions and untruths in the Bible and the traditions of a brotherhood, known as the Kabbalah. James, Morgan, Eric, Ashvin and Elise, a close-knit group of friends at university but with limited contact since, are thrust together in circumstances they could never have imagined. A weekend in the country together is the beginning of a journey, on which they discover the little-known brotherhood of the Kabbalah, and the secrets they are sworn to protect. Each of the five friends begin to manifest unusual ‘gifts’, as the time for the Fivefold Cable to rise again draws near. Lovers of history and readers who are drawn to novels where the plot revolves around the possibility of uncovering religious ‘half-truths’ will enjoy this novel. There is a lot of information in this novel, with many descriptions and explanations. I found this distracting at times, and even a little forced, but by no means a reason to put the book down. I felt the characterisations let the author down now and then, but generally the overall text was good.
Sharon Athanasos is freelance reviewer and former bookseller
This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2007, Thorpe-Bowker