NEW NEMESIS

James Frey's Novel, 'The Final Testament of the Holy Bible,' Not Original

British author to publish book on same subject.

James Frey's upcoming novel about the Messiah's second coming will compete with a British novelist who has penned a story with a strikingly similar plot. Frey's The Final Testament of the Holy Bible depicts Christ as an alcoholic bisexual who sleeps with a prostitute and gets her pregnant, while British author John Niven's The Second Coming imagines the Messiah as a struggling musician who "smokes dope and gets laid," according to the author. But Niven's Christ figure lives by a good-natured commandment—"Be nice"—and his book is allegedly more of a dark comedy than Frey's, which sounds just dark. Frey is publishing his novel with Gagosian in New York and John Murray in the U.K. "He expects death threats, book burnings, and bannings," said John Murray's managing director on behalf of Frey.