Getting to Heaven

More about the book

A suicide takes a detour through time, sending a melancholy present-day cynic to ancient Alexandria, Egypt, to learn the secrets of life and happiness from history's greatest woman the last, most brilliant defender of life-loving shameless pagan Greek culture. Exhaustively researched, unremittingly irreverent, and shockingly frank, this is the long-suppressed pagans' side of the story of how the Church consolidated its power in that final confrontation between Faith and Reason which precipitated the Dark Ages. After having been silenced forever by the victor in the conflict, the ghost of paganism arises in these pages to fire a broadside on Christian morals and on modern-day laws and values. Hauntingly romantic, explicitly erotic, and daringly controversial, this is a story of first love, of sexual awakening, and of two lovers separated by time. Darkly humorous, intellectually engaging, and dangerously iconoclastic, it is also a portrait of genius, with trenchant psychological, social, and political commentary. Framed as an historical science-fiction adventure, Hypatia's tragedy becomes surprisingly uplifting perhaps even inspirational as the tolerant, permissive, free-thinking ways of the ancients are resurrected to once again offer those without faith a rational basis for hope, a compelling philosophical alternative to religion, and a reason to go on living.