We will start with a personal favorite, Barabbas by Par Lagerkvist. Lagerkvist was a Swede, and he won the Nobel prize for literature in 1951. The short novel was translated into English that same year. Of course, Barabbas was the criminal who was released by Pontius Pilate instead of Jesus of Nazareth. This Biblical character then becomes Lagerkvist's protagonist, and the novel traces Barabbas's wonderings and wanderings for the rest of his life.
The following is an excerpt from the Nobel Society's own website:
Pär Lagerkvist (1891-1974), son of station master Anders Johan Lagerkvist and Johanna Blad, was born in the south of Sweden. He decided early that he was going to be a writer and, after a year at the University of Uppsala, he left for Paris (1913), where he came under the influence of expressionism, especially in painting. His impressions resulted in the programmatic Ordkonst och bildkonst (1913) [Verbal Art and Pictorial Art]. Until 1930 Lagerkvist lived chiefly in France and Italy, and even after his permanent return to Sweden he frequently travelled on the Continent and in the Mediterranean.
Lagerkvist increasingly has dealt with the problem of man's relation to God, particularly in his three important novels, Dvärgen (1944) [The Dwarf], Barabbas (1950), and Sibyllan (1956) [The Sibyl]. Barabbas, the story of a "believer without faith", was his first truly international success.
Read more of the entry at Nobelprize.org
Like the Gospel of John's treatment of Thomas, Lagerkvist is concerned with faith in the absence of sight; how to believe without compelling proof; wonder in the face of reason; Lessing's ditch; or the existential questions of Kierkegaard.
Lucien Maury, in the preface to the English edition, states it well: "It has been a far cry with him from anguish to serenity, to that interior joy which triumphs over all despair; from early revolt to an acceptance which has never been mere resignation, though often it is not far removed from a mood of burning adoration, from a religious sense at one with reason, from faith in the existence of a principle to be found at the source of all our human destiny."
Another early commentator (Andre Gide) adds: "It is the measure of Lagerkvist's success that he has managed so admirably to maintain his balance on a tightrope that stretches across the dark abyss that lies between the world of reality and the world of faith."
"Its power is the power of a parable, with the same timeless echo." -- The New York Times
"As a parable, Barabbas is open to many interpretations. As a picture of a human soul, with or without parable, it is moving and convincing." -- Time
"Swift, sparing, limpid, and hauntingly intense." -- Atlantic Monthly
The novel was filmed in 1962, with Anthony Quinn playing the title role.
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