The Shroud of Turin, a historic cloth bearing what many believe is the image of Christ at the time of crucifixion, is a highly contested artifact that's often bandied about in debates of religious belief.

Some believe it's authentic, others believe it's a hoax.

In their novel “The Shroud,” brothers Steven and Michel Meloan use the ancient relic to ponder intersection of science and religion: their protagonist, a genetic researcher, is tapped by the Vatican to uncover the background behind the Shroud—once and for all—using genetics.

Steven, a long-time Sonoma resident and science journalist (his byline has graced  Wired, Playboy, and Rolling Stone) birthed the book with his Los Angeles based brother over years of e-mail exchanges.

"The Shroud" is making the rounds: the Huffington Post cited the novel and fans have given rave Amazon.com reviews.

You can hear more about the book tonight, at the brothers' Readers' Books reading.

We sat down with the Meloan brothers to chat about their latest release, the definition of a “science adventure” novel, and how to ponder issues of humanity in fiction.

Sonoma Patch: Have you guys collaborated before?

Steve Meloan: In the 80s and early 90s we wrote some albums together and got some radio play. But, this is the first major fictional thing that we’ve collaborated on. So, it's not [a new process,] but it can be highly contentious.

Mike Meloan: It’s an extension of dynamic that’s interesting, rewarding and highly synergistic.

SM: I once likened it to Lennon and McCartney: two people with very different sensibilities, who can come together and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts...It's not a process without pain.

MM: I worked on the first draft material and passed it onto Steve, and he powered through it. We worked that way for a couple of years: the other one would check it out for a few months and make changes, or additions, then, we would hash over those changes again, until we finally agreed. The advent of the internet was really very key, because we wouldn't have been able to do this in the same way.

SP: Steven, you write mostly about science and technology — and the novel grapples with the intersection of science and religion. Is stange work in an agricultural community such as Sonoma?

SM: In terms of Sonoma, you'll find that there's a lot of really interesting and eclectic people here...it's not really a kind of farm-y rural town.  I often tell a lot of people that it's a Norman Rockwell kind of town — but it’s got an art museum, it's got it’s own music festival — so it kind of goes beyond your image of a small, 10,000 person town.

SP: How did you first conceive of the plot?

SM: The original genesis was—not surprisingly—“Jurassic Park,” because I thought, blood from dinosaurs, mosquitoes and amber...that might be an interesting angle.

MM: It was an original idea that Criterion had.

SM: And it’s kind of the perfect vehicle to explore science and religion—the shroud of Turin is one of the most controversial religious icon.

MM: It's also a microcosm of spiritual beliefs in general: everytime a study comes up carbon-dating the Shroud to 1200 A.D it always morphs, and someone disagrees. Because the science is really about belief.

SM: And we really address that point in the book: it’s really about belief rather than facts.

MM: We’ve also been told that the story is a compelling and fast-moving tale which takes you through that.

SM: People told us on the Amazon reviews: "My bleary eyes stayed up all night reading this."

MM: And we didn’t even pay them.

SP: How did you balence writing a thought-provoking novel with the more engaging adventure part?

SM: That’s why we call it a science-adventure novel and not a thriller: a Dan Brown novel is plot driven, page to page to page, with little murders and albino assassins. We wanted to go a little deeper than that.

MM: We refined it for years, we spent more time on the book than most people who write those kinds of books would be willing to spend. [Ed Note: The brothers spent almost five years writing the book, alongside day-jobs.] People that write thriller type of novels, they know exactly what the pacing of the genre should be — when the little murders should take place.

SM: And then the guy ends up with his babe-of-adventure at a five star European hotel.

MM: In an inflated raft in the Caribbean.

SP: Do you think the genre of the book helps you engage in a deeper questioning of religion, spirituality—these huge ideas?

SM: Definitely. I think these types of novels are vehicle for exploring things. Literary fiction deals with important interpersonal things, but not things on a global level.

I went to see “A Christmas Carol” in Union Square over Christmas. They said in the book that Dickens was in a workhouse at age 12, so he personally experienced the things in the story. Originally, once he became wealthy and successful he was going to write an editorial on poverty in London, but then he thought it would be much more lasting to make it fiction. And here we are, 150 years later, and people are still seeing it.  

MM: A great story sometimes interjects itself in a permanent way into the zeitgeist of the cultural seer.

SM: Whereas you write an editorial about the same thing and a month later it’s forgotten. There was a Newsweek poll saying about 30 percent of Americans feel that they’re spiritual, but not religious. There’s a fairly large percent of American and to a great extent that’s the target audience for a book like this.

The Gist:

Catch the Meloan brothers tonight, Tuesday, Jan. 11 at Readers' Books, 7:30 p.m.

They'll read selections from "The Shroud," and take questions. You can also grab a copy of their book at Readers’.