Favourite disciple, influential woman, true believer and follower of Jesus: how do we see Mary Magdalene today? Witness to Jesus' crucifixion and his burial, the first to announce the resurrection, she is without a doubt the most recognizable of the gospels' female figures, a central character in Christianity's foundational story. But centuries of alteration and resizing, of merging several female figures into one, have erased Mary Madgalene's apostolic role and left us with a misrepresentation. Adriana Valerio's engrossing retelling of Magdalene's story, founded as it is in historical fact, is an unmissable opportunity to reclaim such roles in a church that remains largely patriarchal to the present day.