One morning, Luther Dunphy, a devout catholic, shoots Gus Voorhees, a doctor who performs abortions. On both sides, a wife and children. Beginning at the level of the two men, the story alternates through a multi-layered structure between the two perspectives and slowly gives us to hear the voices of the wives and then the two daughters. This novel feels like a house of cards. A single act at the top, and two entire families come toppling down. No one will emerge from this story unscathed. This gripping, topical novel tackles weighty moral issues and explores the human cost of ideological extremism. It is difficult to finish this book without being disturbed.
“Naomi asked, “Was Jesus’s crucifixion a kind of suicide”
“Not if Jesus was resurrected. That’s the happy ending.”
“But – we don’t believe that Jesus was resurrected. Do we?”
“We don’t, but others do. Very likely, Jesus thought he would be resurrected, at least before the crucifixion.”
Kinch continued: “Remember, on the cross Jesus calls out in a loud voice – “My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me ?” – “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani ?” – the saddest words in the New Testament. (But the words are an echo of the Old Testament Psalms. Jesus was a Biblical scholar !) The rest of the story, the death, the burial in the tomb, the resurrection and the rising to heaven – is obviously of another, later era. This is the fairy-tale ending – the prescribed ending. It’s the verses leading to the crucifixion that depict a stark sort of reality. The betrayal of Judas – the denial of Peter – the anointing of Jesus’s feet by Mary, as if he were already a corpse – the matter-of-fact words of Jesus presaging his death : “Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you : for he that walks in darkness knows not whither he goes.”
Read and listened to as an audiobook