Zora Neale Hurston’s New, Posthumous Novel: What We Know So Far About The Bible-Tinged ‘The Life Of Herod The Great’

A posthumous novel from Zora Neale Hurston , The Life of Herod the Great , is set for a 2025 release. Hurston, who died in 1960, emerged as a prominent author during the Harlem Renaissance as she centered most of her work on the lives of Black people in the South. Her most popular book remains 1937’s Their Eyes Were Watching God .

In 1939, she penned Moses, Man of the Mountain — and The Life of Herod the Great is a continuation of that novel. The never-before-published book reimagines the life of Herod, who is portrayed as a villain in the Bible, People reported.

“Portraying him within this vivid and dynamic world of antiquity, little known to modern readers, Hurston’s unfinished manuscript brings this complex, compelling, and misunderstood leader fully into focus,” Amistad, the publisher states, per The Grio .

Available for pre-order, The Life of Herod the Great will be published on Huston’s birthday: Jan. 7, 2025.

Hurston’s forthcoming book features an endnote from scholar Deborah Plant that underscores “Hurston’s point about how reimagining figures from the past can address the troubles we experience today,” according to People.

As Mississippi Today reported, Hurston was born in Alabama; her father served as mayor of Eatonville, Florida. Several of Hurtson’s works, including essays and poems, have been published posthumously throughout the years such as Every Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Folk–Tales from the Gulf States and Go Gator , Muddy the Water: Writings by Zora Neale Hurston from the Federal Writers’ Project , as well as Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters .