In 1947, on the shores of the Dead Sea, a shepherd boy discovered a cave containing ancient scrolls. Two years later, in a village near Thebes, two Egyptian brothers dug up a jar, which turned out to be a repository of Gnostic manuscripts. Among them was the Gospel of Thomas, which was considered lost. Both of these finds shed light on the origins of Christianity. Obviously, the New Testament includes only a small fraction of what is told about the Savior. In addition to the four canonical Gospels, the Middle East knew many others that were later considered heretical. The Gospel of the Twelve, mentioned by Origen and Jerome, is considered the most mysterious of them. “Son of the Panther” - a novel by one of the most interesting writers of our time, the Fleming Paul Claes - is an apocryphal reconstruction of this text, which tells the story of how twelve people try in memories to bring their dead Teacher back to life. The old hermit, according to his own understanding, rewrites their fragmentary evidence. Finally, the modern historian views the tombstone of a Roman soldier as a document gradually unfolding before him. Thus, this book contains fourteen complementary and mutually contradictory versions of the ever-elusive Divine truth. Paul Klaas owns many diverse works, awarded a number of literary prizes. “Son of the Panther” is the second novel by the most popular Flemish author. The novels “Satyr” and “Chameleon” and two collections of poetry also came from his pen. For his translations of works by Catullus, Nerval and Joyce, Paul Klaas received the prestigious Martinus Nijhoff Prize in 1996.