The Mes­si­ah is his­tor­i­cal fic­tion based on the adven­tures of a lit­tle known 16th cen­tu­ry Jew­ish prince from the lost king­dom of Cha­bor. David Reubeni trav­els through­out Europe seek­ing sup­port for his plan to build a Jew­ish army to take Jerusalem from the Turks and to rein­sti­tute a Jew­ish king­dom in Israel. The mes­sen­ger from Cha­bor is a sin­gle mind­ed, col­or­ful char­ac­ter who often speaks bib­li­cal­ly. He is charis­mat­ic enough to get an audi­ence with Car­di­nal Egidio di Viter­bo, the clos­est advi­sor to Pope Clement VII, to con­vince him of the ben­e­fit of a Judeo- Chris­t­ian alliance that would con­tain the expan­sion of Islam under the Turk­ish Empire on the Mediter­ranean. In exchange for Chris­t­ian sup­port, the church would have author­i­ty over their holy places in Israel. David meets King Joao III, King Charles V, Machi­avel­li, Michelan­ge­lo, and oth­er nota­bles. David earns his people’s sup­port wher­ev­er he trav­els in his white robe car­ry­ing a ban­ner, both stitched in gold. The Jew­ish peo­ple are divid­ed and des­per­ate for a leader to save them from the hard­ships of exile but there are cun­ning plot­ters bent on foil­ing the com­ple­tion of David’s mis­sion. Although the book includes much intrigue, romance, heart­break, and sus­pense along with detailed his­to­ry of the peri­od and inter­est­ing par­al­lels to today’s world pol­i­tics, I wished at times that the tale was a bit more concise.