Mary of Nazareth

I was sadly disappointed when I finished reading Mary of Nazareth by Marek Halter today. I love reading historical fiction novels - I've read many about women in the Bible (Sarah, Zipporah and Mary Magdalene to name a few). Most of the time, after reading the book, I am inspired to learn more about the story of the woman as the Bible tells it. It is fun to see how people interpret stories differently. And I learn a lot from them. But this book was... it's hard to put it into words - unbelievable is the first word that comes to mind. And yes, I know it is historical fiction, but it should be at least loosely based on fact, right? It was a story about Mary, the mother of Jesus. It started off pretty well, but it came to the part of Jesus' conception and it turned it into something way out there, difficult for me to grab hold of. At the conclusion of the story, the book included a translation of The Gospel of Mary supposedly about Mary, Jesus' mother. Maybe it is my interpretation, but instead of portraying Mary as the strong, loving and chosen mother of God, in the book she became a defiant, rebellious, unwed and prideful mother of a baby boy who SHE wills to be the son of God. I was reading a little bit on the Internet about The Gospel of Mary and it is very controversial about whether the writing actually was written about Jesus' mother or Mary Magdalene. I am NOT a Biblical scholar and this is pretty unknown territory for me. Does anyone have any incite they would like to share? Or a place I can go to learn more? Maybe there is something to the text known as the Gospel of Mary?