To thine eyes

A study of how the body of God was depicted in ancient times is intriguing from head to toe.

-  PETER LINEHAM

GOD: AN ANATOMY, by Francesca Stavrakopoulou (Picador, $37.99)

Yes, you read the title correctly. This is a study of the shape of God’s body, from the feet up, and it is a gripping read. I imagine that the audio was superb, too, for the book began as a series of lectures on Radio 4 in the UK. I propose it next be a TV documentary, as the coloured illustrations in the paperback I found just a bit small. It also made me yearn to get back to tourism. I want to see the shoes of God, the hands of God, the torso of God preserved in the museums of the ancient Near East and in the museums that pillaged the sites. Sadly, I will be too late to see the footprints left by a giant god in a temple in Aleppo in Syria, because in 2018 it was bombed to smithereens.