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My ninth-grade English teacher al ways said you could pick out the main characters of a novel by determining who undergoes change in the course of the book. If that formula holds, the central Whitecappers are Jeffrey and Jannette Tolson and Morris Love. Jeffrey Tolson, a suave, handsome blond who directed the choir of Saint John's in the Grove for 14 years, left his wife, Jannette, and ran off with the married organist shortly before the Kavanaghs arrived on White cap Island. Morris Love is the town legend, a native Whitecapper born with a mysterious ailment; he never leaves his house (conveniently located next door to the Kavanaghs' new home), but remains holed up inside, playing gut-wrenching organ music, seeing no one but his long-time maid and his organ tuner.

When the Kavanaghs arrive on Whitecap Island, Jannette is near suicide, Jeffrey is self-righteous and unrepentant, and Morris is furious with God. Al though Father Tim comes to know and care about many other White cappers, his central work in this novel involves helping Jannette recover, goading Jeffrey to ac knowledge that he has sinned, and en couraging Morris to embrace the Lord.

The theme of A New Song is captured in a sign in Mona's Cafe: BLOOM WHERE YOU'RE PLANTED. As a tearful Cynthia puts it one night: "I'm homesick for Mitford. … I like it here, actually I love it here, but I miss Mitford, I miss our home." At one point, Father Tim even plans a weekend jaunt back home, until he realizes that such a trip would entail ignoring the needs of his current parishioners in order to look after his former congregation.

If the first four books saw Father Tim grappling with his fear of marriage and facing the pain inflicted by his long-dead father, A New Song focuses on Father Tim's learning about livin' where he's at, to borrow my mother's phrase. After all, Father Tim had long thought of his retirement as "going out to Canaan." He may have missed Mitford, but he was sure God had called him to Whitecap Island, and he did not waver in following that call.

Lauren F. Winner is a senior writer for Christianity Today.

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July 12 1999, Vol. 43, No. 8