Joseph, a hardworking carpenter, has been betrothed to Mary since they were children. But when she comes to his workshop to inform him that she’s pregnant with the Son of God, it’s a little much. He knows the child isn’t his, so how should he react to this seemingly wild story?

Thus begins Joseph: Step-Father, a vividly imagined novel that sets out to answer our questions about the man who raised Jesus Christ. Who was he, really? What was it like for him to raise a perfect Child? And what did Joseph do with the gold, frankincense, and myrrh given to Jesus by the Magi?

Spanning decades, the novel chronicles Joseph’s early career, his marriage to Mary, their subsequent flight to Egypt, and the childhood of Jesus. Did Jesus’s brothers know He was the Messiah? Did Mary and Joseph ever learn about the killing of the infants in Bethlehem after their departure? And why did Jesus, at the crucifixion, entrust the care of his mother to the Apostle John, and not to his own brother James, future leader of the Church in Jerusalem?

Perhaps most intriguingly, we know that Joseph died before Jesus began His ministry. Did this righteous man ever glimpse the true significance of Mary’s Son before he died?