The co-op bookstore for avid readers
Book Cover for: King David: The Real Life of the Man Who Ruled Israel, Jonathan Kirsch

King David: The Real Life of the Man Who Ruled Israel

Jonathan Kirsch

David, King of the Jews, possessed every flaw and failing of which a mortal is capable, yet men and women adored him, and God showered him with many blessings. A charismatic leader, exalted as "a man after God's own heart," he was also capable of deep cunning and bloodthirsty violence. Weaving together biblical texts with centuries of interpretation and commentary, as well as the startling discoveries of modern biblical archaeology and scholarship, bestselling author Jonathan Kirsch brings King David to life with extraordinary freshness, intimacy, and vividness of detail, revealing him in all his glory and fallibility. At the center of this taut, dramatic narrative stands a hero of flesh and blood-a man as vibrant and compelling today as he has been for millennia.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Ballantine Books
  • Publish Date: Aug 28th, 2001
  • Pages: 400
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.20in - 5.54in - 0.90in - 0.77lb
  • EAN: 9780345435057
  • Categories: ReligiousHistoricalRoyalty

More books to explore

Book Cover for: Amazing Grace in the Life of William Wilberforce, John Piper
Book Cover for: Dorothy Day: A Radical Devotion, Robert Coles
Book Cover for: Becoming Elijah: Prophet of Transformation, Daniel C. Matt
Book Cover for: King and Emperor: A New Life of Charlemagne, Janet L. Nelson
Book Cover for: Jacob: Unexpected Patriarch, Yair Zakovitch
Book Cover for: Gilded Youth: A History of Growing Up in the Royal Family: From the Plantagenets to the Cambridges, Tom Quinn
Book Cover for: The Terrible Speed of Mercy: A Spiritual Biography of Flannery O'Connor, Jonathan Rogers
Book Cover for: Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke & Duchess of Windsor, Andrew Lownie
Book Cover for: Heroes of Faith, Gene Fedele
Book Cover for: Letters and Papers from Prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Book Cover for: St. Augustine's Confessions, Saint Augustine
Book Cover for: Padre Pio: Miracles and Politics in a Secular Age, Sergio Luzzatto
Book Cover for: Lady Caroline Lamb: A Free Spirit, Antonia Fraser
Book Cover for: The Windsor Diaries: My Childhood with the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, Alathea Fitzalan Howard
Book Cover for: Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution, Caroline Weber

About the Author

Jonathan Kirsch, a book columnist for the Los Angeles Times and author of the bestselling and critically acclaimed Moses: A Life and The Harlot by the Side of the Road, writes and lectures widely on biblical, literary, and legal topics. A member of the National Book Critics Circle, President of PEN Center USA West, and a former correspondent for Newsweek, he lives in Los Angeles.

More books by Jonathan Kirsch

Book Cover for: God Against the Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism, Jonathan Kirsch
Book Cover for: The Harlot by the Side of the Road: Forbidden Tales of the Bible, Jonathan Kirsch
Book Cover for: History of the End of the World: How the Most Controversial Book in the Bible Changed the Course of Western Civilization, Jonathan Kirsch
Book Cover for: The Grand Inquisitor's Manual: A History of Terror in the Name of God, Jonathan Kirsch
Book Cover for: Moses: A Life, Jonathan Kirsch
Book Cover for: The Short, Strange Life of Herschel Grynszpan: A Boy Avenger, a Nazi Diplomat, and a Murder in Paris, Jonathan Kirsch

Praise for this book

"[A] SPLENDID BIOGRAPHY . . . An eminently readable account of perhaps the best-known and most popular of all biblical heroes."
-Los Angeles Times

"A COMPLETE PORTRAIT . . . One of the more comprehensive attempts to place this staggering figure in history, in literature, in psychology, and in the evolution of Judaism and Christianity."
-The Seattle Times

"A STUNNING SYNTHESIS . . . Kirsch has taken the best of both worlds to fashion a story that is the first of its kind: a biography of biblical proportions, anchored in the imaginative sweep of fiction and the tactile surprise of fact."
-DAVID ROSENBERG
Author of The Book of David
and co-author of The Book of J

"Anyone who reads [this] entertaining and often enlightening account will come away with a solid understanding of David's life and legacy."
-San Francisco Chronicle