Books

New & Noteworthy Fiction

Chosen by H. S. Cross, author of “Wilberforce” and “Grievous.”

Charis in the World of Wonders

Marly Youmans (Ignatius Press)

Set in Massachusetts Bay Colony during the 1690s, Charis in the World of Wonders plunges us into the mind, language, and worldview of a young woman struggling to survive yet finding grace in unexpected places. Youmans’s lush prose evokes a preindustrial, perilous, socially connected world in which the Divine has sovereign reign over outcomes both joyous and sorrowful. Reading it feels like traveling through time and space to experience reality laid bare: Life is fragile, humans need each other, and the created world is shot through with beauty, fear, mystery, and God.

Thirst

A. G. Mojtabai (Slant)

If you’ve never read Mojtabai’s sparse, resonant novels, her newest, Thirst, is an outstanding place to start. It sketches the last days of Father Theo, who to the confusion and dismay of those around him, has decided to stop living. His cousin Lena, mostly secular and recently bereaved, comes to be with him, but she cannot get him to eat or drink any more than the nuns who cook for him. This novella maintains a stark quietness that belies spiritual depths. Its meditations on doubt, human life, and what waits beyond bear rereading and testify to Mojtabai’s consummate skill.

Original Prin

Randy Boyagoda (Biblioasis)

Original Prin opens with its hero, Prin, a Roman Catholic professor of English, taking his family to the Toronto Zoo, where he informs the kids that he has prostate cancer. It ends in the Middle East with Prin having entangled himself in a terrorist attack as he was attempting to save his failing university and recover his damaged marriage. Part satire, part farce, with nods in several literary directions, the novel moves with madcap energy as this thoroughly modern protagonist takes his culture, his family, and his Catholicism seriously while wearing them lightly. The book ends in a cliffhanger, and the sequel, Dante’s Indiana, has just been released.

Also in this issue

Evangelical intellectuals have generally disdained Christian fiction as lacking any real literary worth. But as Daniel Silliman notes in this month’s cover story, diverse groups of readers have long found virtue, pleasure, and the hope of Christ even in the most popular and viral Christian novels. Criticism of these books misses the crucial role they have played in shaping evangelicalism today.

Cover Story

What’s True About Christian Fiction

No Hero But Christ

Our September Issue: This Present Fiction

News

Where Billy Graham Is Remembered

Gary Chapman Doesn’t Know He’s Famous

Martha: Busy Hostess or Dragon Slayer?

What Comes After the Ex-Gay Movement? The Same Thing That Came Before.

We Really Are on the Same Team

Crime Might Be Rising Again, As Evangelicals (Inaccurately) Feared All Along

The Harvest Is Plentiful, But the Workers Are Divided

Testimony

I Wasn’t ‘Tough’ Enough for My Street-Fighting Family. God Showed Me I Didn’t Have to Be.

The Ten Commitments Behind the Ten Commandments

5 Books That Portray the Priesthood of All Believers

Editorial

We Are All Baptists Now—So Let’s Not Fight Like It

News

NASA Specialist Finds His Calling in Space Experiments

News

When God Opened a Coliseum, Young Life Ministers Were Ready

News

What’s Lost When Prison Mail Goes Digital?

News

Gleanings: October 2021

Reply All

William Lane Craig Explores the Headwaters of the Human Race

Review

Shame Is Often Toxic and Harmful. Sometimes, It’s Just What We Deserve.

Review

Philip Yancey, as Few Could Have Imagined Him

View issue

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The National Guard Debate Needs a Dose of Honesty

Criticizing federal overreach while remaining silent about local failures does not serve the cause of justice.

High Time for an Honest Conversation about THC

Legal cannabis may be here to stay, but the Christian conversation is just getting started.

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