Barbara McHugh Boeken

This is the story of Yasodhara, the abandoned wife of the Buddha. Facing society’s challenges, she transforms her rage into devotion to the path of liberation. Concealing her gender, she joins the monastic community and becomes the Buddha’s closest confidant, known in the scriptures as Ananda. She/he is the one who persuades the Buddha to allow women to join the order and attains awakening just in time to guide the council in preserving the Buddha’s teachings. A page-turner about a woman’s struggle in an unapologetic patriarchy, Bride of the Buddha offers the reader a penetrating perspective on the milieu of the Buddha, with a fanciful twist.