If you want to learn more about the first century Greco-Roman world, you can wipe the dust off a history book and inch your way through the prose. Or you can pick up The Lost Letters of Pergamum, an engaging 200-page work of historical fiction in which the author uses the literary technique of story through correspondence as an entrée into the ancient world. In this work readers catch first-person glimpses of life in an honor/shame society as they read “newly discovered ancient letters.”

Readers meet Antipas, a Roman civic leader who has encountered the writings of Luke, the physician who researched and wrote an account of the Galilean’s life for someone named Theophilus (see Luke 1). Luke's history sparks Antipas's interest, and they engage in a correspondence about it. Those of us reading their accounts learn about gladiatorial contests, storms at sea, travel by foot, poverty, wealth, social class designations, slavery, persecution, and honor.

Unlike some writers of historical fiction, author Bruce Longenecker is careful to draw a meticulously accurate picture. And for those who want to go beyond enjoying the story to know what’s “true” and what’s “made up,” notes in the back of the book reveal all.

Yes, The Lost Letters of Pergamum provides readers with a context for understanding the ethos of the ancient world. But did I mention it’s also a good read, a gripping story? The surprise ending left me weeping. Four stars.