Women of Holy Week by Paula Gooder

Starting with Palm Sunday and finishing with Ascension Day, these nine stories imagine what it might have been like to accompany Jesus in this final week of his life from the perspective of nine women. Some of them we know with certainty were there because the Gospels tell us they were: the widow with two coins, the woman with the ointment of pure nard, Mary wife of Clopas, Mary Magdalene, Mary mother of Jesus. Some are not mentioned at all, but someone like them was probably present: a woman journeying to Jerusalem for the Passover, the wife of a scribe, and a female disciple at the Last Supper. The stories also aim to travel from the outside in: from people who had the most fleeting encounters with Jesus at the start of the week to his most devoted followers at the end.