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They took us into the future with the apocalyptic thrillers of the Left Behind series. Now Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins are taking readers back to early Christianity with The Jesus Chronicles.
The four-book series focuses on the writers of the Gospels. The first, John's Story: The Last Eyewitness (Putnam Praise, $24.95), hits stores Tuesday.
"We based our futuristic novels on the Book of Revelation, which was written by John," Jenkins says, "and so we thought it would be interesting to talk about how it all came to be in the first place."
Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days, was published in 1995 by Christian publisher Tyndale. It begins the story of "the Rapture" when millions of Christians disappear and are taken up into heaven. Non-believers are left behind to battle the Antichrist. The interpretation of the meaning of the Book of Revelation on which the books are based is highly debated among Christians.
Left Behind spawned a 12-book series, followed by a three-book prequel and Kingdom Come, which Jenkins calls Left Behind's "final sequel," to be published in the spring.
Left Behind is the best-selling Christian series of all time, and 75% of sales occurred at mainstream outlets with 62 million copies sold.
"The big question" is whether Chronicles, which Jenkins describes as biblical fiction, will have the same crossover appeal. "My guess is we will have a Christian-based audience, but it certainly won't be limited to Protestants or evangelicals. I think Catholics would be interested, and maybe even Jewish people, because of the milieu and the history."
Jane Love, religion-book buyer for Barnes & Noble, says she expects the books to do well because of the authors' name recognition. "We're expecting strong sales."
The publisher is equally optimistic. "What appeals to me about the series is how Jesus is so important to millions of Americans at all ends of the spectrum," says Putnam Praise publisher Joel Fotinos. Praise publishes for the Christian and secular markets. John's Story is the first big book for the fledgling imprint.
Putnam is backing the book with national advertising and publicity and promotions at retail outlets. The first printing is 277,500. "This could, potentially, be bigger than Left Behind," Fotinos says. "There's more interest in Jesus than there is in certain end-of-time events."
Over the next three years, Putnam will publish the next three books, which tell the stories of Mark, Matthew and Luke. John's Story is based on Scripture, parts of which are fleshed out, including, for example, the back story of the boy who shared his lunch with Jesus who then performed a miracle and fed 5,000 with loaves and fishes.
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