Most successful fiction about early Christianity-such as Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace (1880), Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienklewicz (1897), The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas (1942) and The Silver Chalice by Thomas Costain (1953)-is set in or very close to the lifetime of Jesus.
Genesius takes place at the time of the last great Roman persecution of Christians. It is the first-person account of a little known saint anxious to tell his own story. "I am myth, I am man, I am martyr," he begins. "I am all of these, or I am none." Here Saint Genesius of Rome, also known as the Actor, is given a backstory to explain his martyrdom, a personality-- arrogant, funny, lusty, conniving-and a life, far too short but oh so very memorable. Genesius: An imaginative tale, a glimpse of Christian history, a benediction.