Six of the Best contd.

The Shack by William Paul Young

This is a Christian novel which was originally self- published and later became a best seller. Many people who have suffered a tragic loss have found comfort in the book and our own Sausage Fingers says ‘I read The Shack after my brother in law passed away, it helped with the grief.’

The author says: The Shack is a metaphor for the house you build out of your pain.’

When Mack, the hero, takes three of his children on a camping trip his small daughter Missy is abducted and murdered. Some time later Mack gets a mysterious note asking him to meet Papa at the Shack where the murder took place. His wife has always used the name Papa for God.

God appears to him in kitchen of the Shack as three people: God the father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The novel is a page turner with twists and turns that keep you riveted. I found it absorbing and wanted to tell everybody about it. It is a powerful novel and tackles the age old question - ‘How can there be a God who allows such awful things to happen in the world’

Mack gets the answers.

This is one of the few books that I never want to let out of the house.

True North by Kimberley Kafka recommended by Nea (side bar)

Another winner from Nea. I enjoyed being transported to a different land with different customs and a native people – the Ingaliks. The heroine – Bailey Lockhart is the only white woman. She settled in Alaska six years earlier having left Maine after a tragedy. She supports herself as a bush pilot and is drawn to Kash, also a bush pilot and a native activist. There are so many taboos that it is almost impossible for them to behave naturally with each other and their independent natures makes an alliance highly unlikely, so there is lots of romantic tension

Two young Easterners, Zack and Alpha (all the names are unusual) hire Bailey to pilot them. Secretly they are looking for gold and their behaviour eventually causes violence and mayhem. This shatters Bailey’s peaceful life style and she is forced to face her unresolved, tragic past. There is a lecherous drunk, Match to add to the hazards she had to face, to say nothing of the life threatening bears
It is a great adventure and love story.

Kimberley Kafka is a direct descendant of Franz Kafka.

Old Filth by Jane Gardam

This was recommended by our man in New York: Unbearable Banishment (side bar)

Let’s get one thing clear. Old Filth is the nickname of the hero Edward Feathers, a Raj orphan and Filth stands for ‘Failed In London Try Hong Kong.’

In those days children didn’t survive out East so were sent ‘Home’ to be educated in England. The book covers his life from birth to the final curtain and perfectly captures the period when our Empire was illustrated by masses of pink on a map of the world. Every era she covers is written with such assurance and skill I felt she had to be there. So it was no surprise to discover she was born in 1928 and even older than me (Sorry Jane.)

Although Eddie becomes a famous Judge and is reasonably happily married there is a deep sadness in his life starting from his mother dying at his birth and the inability of his father to show any love. He is taken to a foster home in Wales with three other children and we know something unspeakable happens there, from which all the children suffer for the rest of their lives and Edward develops a stammer.

Thankfully then there is a blissful period when he meets his saviour ’Sir’and tastes happiness. The book constantly shifts to and fro between different periods but the writer is so skilful this doesn’t in any way detract from the story. The characters are so real it’s like hearing what happened to old friends and the story is absorbing throughout. Near the end we learn exactly what happened in Wales and three of the quartet of children compare their memories of that awful time.

I wouldn’t want to give the impression that this is a depressing book. The writer is very gifted and there is the satisfaction of recognising real people with genuine behaviour of the period and there is lots of humour especially when he is befriended by HM Queen Mary and when he is told by his CO that in addition to the deathly illness he developed from eating 39 bananas out East, he also had a dose of VD.

When The Guardian called this ‘a masterpiece’ just for once I agreed with them.

Do read it!