A young, Jewish New Yorker, an average and unremarkable investment banker, is happy and content with his life—until he awakens one Christmas morning, bleeding from the hands. Although the mysterious wounds have no special meaning for him, the rest of the world sees his condition differently.

As word of his "stigmata" spreads, fundamentalists and true-believers of every stripe
latch on to him as proof of various millennial, apocalyptic prophecies. A southern
preacher proclaims him the Antichrist, an Orthodox Rabbi uses him as a rallying-cry to
push radical Israelis toward re-building the Temple on Mount Zion, and a young,
spiritually lost girl believes he is her personal savior.

The "messiah" himself doesn't believe in much of anything, and wishes he could return
to his unremarkable life and be left alone. Unfortunately for him, though, the fate of the
world might just be in his hands.

Reviews
"Rich and often funny... [The Wind on the Water] skillfully maintains the balance between serious inquiry and social satire.... You can almost hear the footfall of the barbarians at the gates——a scary sound on this eve of the millennium."
~ Francine Russo
The Village Voice, October 20, 1999