Is there such a thing as a ‘Christian’ novel? Well, you’ll find a few examples in the back pages of Christian publishers’ catalogues, either romances or lurid portrayals of Armageddon.
You’ll find the Narnia books in Waterstones, but they are outnumbered a billion to one by stories which either deny the spiritual world completely or escape into fantastic realms of pseudo-spirituality.
I found two novels which have won secular awards, are available in Waterstones and are distinctively Christian: Leif Enger’s Peace Like a River and Rhidian Brook’s The Testimony of Taliesin Jones. These two stories have a lot in common; published in the last decade, both are narrated by 11-year-old boys. And so they fall into the ‘coming of age’ genre of literature along with Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mocking Bird and Cider with Rosie. What makes this age so good for stories is that it is a time of transition, of discovery of, and often disillusionment with, the adult world. The main characters of Peace like a River and The Testimony of Taleisin Jones are just starting to make up their own minds about belief and morality, they face disintegration in the worlds around them, and in different ways both look to God for answers.
Misogyny, rights & Rowling
It might have seemed as if the isolation of lockdown was making people mad last month when the stars of …