A previously unpublished novel by legendary author Zora Neale Hurston is coming in 2025.
Amistad will publish Hurston’s The Life of Herod the Great next year. The press says the book reveals “the historical Herod the Great—not the villain the Bible makes him out to be but a religious and philosophical man who lived a life of valor and vision.”
Hurston grew up in Alabama and Florida, and studied anthropology at Barnard College. Her studies and fieldwork informed many of her books, including Mules and Men, Tell My Horse, and her most famous work, Their Eyes Were Watching God.
She died in 1960, and 15 years later, an essay by Alice Walker, “Looking for Zora,” rekindled interest in her work. Several of her books have been published posthumously, including Barracoon and Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories From the Harlem Renaissance.
The Life of Herod the Great tells the story of the first-century Judean king who, according to the book of Matthew, ordered the Massacre of the Innocents, in which male children were slaughtered in and around Bethlehem. Historians do not believe the massacre actually occurred.
“In Hurston’s retelling, Herod is not the wicked ruler of the New Testament who is charged with the ‘slaughter of the innocents,’ but the forerunner of Christ—a beloved king who enriched Jewish culture and brought prosperity and peace to Judea,” Amistad says.
The Life of Herod the Great will be published with an introduction and afterword by scholar Deborah Plant. It is slated for publication on Jan. 7, 2025.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
