Oleg Zobern

"A historic novel, much better than Dan Brown."
SERGEI NIKOLAEVICH (Editor in chief of the magazine SNOB)

"At long last, a universal novel in Russian, imbued with the spirit of real religious sentiments. An amazingly accurate, cinematographic portrait of Jesus. Just like Christianity in the 21st century ought to be."
DMITRI VOLCHEK (Editor-in-chief Radio Liberty online)

"Surprising, courageous, original and shockingly talented."
ROMAN SENCHIN

"Devastating! It looks as if we have our own Salman Rushdie."
ALEKSANDR MIKHAILOV (Lecturer at the Gorky Literature Institute)

"After a while the reader begins to feel that it is not Zobern, but this Iesus himself who is laughing at our stupidity, our stiffness, our stringency, our superstitions, our cowardice and above all our wish to crucify him again and again."
JURY NATIONAL BESTSELLER AWARD (Aleksandr Snegirev)

"Zobern's book is a literary masterpiece, glorious and gruesome. Written as a mercilessly honest monologue, it even raises interest in the events in the Bible. But there is a risk of being overawed and taking Christ for this character who although appearing to be the saviour of the World is in fact unable to open the gates of heaven. If we immerse ourselves too much in the text, we may identify ourselves too much with the hero, and run the risk that whenever the real Christ knocks on the door of the soul of humanity no-one will open up because His place has already been taken by this double."
ANNA SKVORTSOVA in AKHILLA

"The book is, to put it plainly, written with skill and good faith. The language pleasing and unusual. The details are accurate and have been researched by many years of studying the ancient texts and extensive journeys through the Holy Land. The characters are quite "authentic", made of flesh and blood... Of all the "alternative" interpretations of the life of Christ, this novel, in my opinion, comes second only to Bulgakov's "Master and Margerita", which is, however, much more fragmentary. In comparison to Zobern's novel, "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ" by José Saramago is boring, schematic, banal. The philosophy of this author is wrapped in aphorisms and images, instead of being cluttered with authorial arguments as with Nikos Kazantzakis whose famous and scandalous novel "The Last Temptation of Christ" cannot compete with Zobern in any way, neither as a literary masterpiece nor for barefaced insolence. The Iesus in Zobern's "Autobiography" is an icon of the antichrist."
ARCHPRIEST VSEVOLOD CHAPLIN (Former adviser to the Russian Patriarch Kirill)

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