Overview

Theosis offers a captivating trajectory of the life of Byzantine Emperor Basil II (976–1025), taking the reader into the intricate history of the Byzantine Empire at the peak of the Macedonian dynasty. Using authentic narratives and documentation as evidence to vividly depict life and politics at the Byzantine court, Harris in parallel traces a unique story of Basil's personal transformations from coming of age and emerging sexuality to his consolidation of power. Exploring Basil's homoerotic desires, Harris draws us in to consider familiar, seemingly modern, possibilities of queer identity without losing sight of the profound distance between Byzantine sexual cultures and our own. For the Byzantine view of rulership, another transformation represented the purpose of emperor's life. According to this ideology, theosis/deification was attainable only through a synergy of human activity and God's energies – but, how did this ideology frame Basil's views of rulership, other people and himself? Set against the backdrop of complex political events that affected the imperial dynasty, family intrigue and his early childhood losses, Harris explores the layers of Basil's conflicted selfhood, sexual subjectivity, and ultimately his desire for vengeance. This becomes the tragedy of Basil's story– despite his vast potential for goodness and self-awareness, his experiences leave him compromised, delighting in the extermination of those who have wronged him. It is this vengeance, and the transformation in him that allows it, that is now Basil's devastating theosis.(Dr. Justin Bengry, Lecturer in Queer History and Director of the Centre for Queer History, Goldsmiths University of London)Historical fiction is always a risky business. Jonathan Harris's debut novel, however, successfully overcomes the obstacles and meticulously builds a complex story set in a period that was perhaps the least covered subject of literature, especially fiction. Following Emperor Basil II on his path to deification, one can feel the atmosphere of ''Secretum'' or ''Imprimatur'' by the author duo Monaldi & Sorti, or even Madeline Miller's ''The Song of Achilles'', while exploring the vast palette of love, death, friendship, treason, and political turmoil from a thousand years ago. Harris grasps some controversy but never falls into sentimentality, which can often be a trap, especially for writers. Theosis is just a perfect text to be turned into a film or even a mini-series. (Ozren K. Glaser, mag. litt. comp., author, composer, filmmaker, cultural ambassador)

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Jonathan Harris teaches history at Royal Holloway, University of London. His previous books include The Lost World of Byzantium (2015), Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium (2nd ed. 2017) and Introduction to Byzantium (602-1453) (2020). This is his first novel.

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