The Book of Strange New Things

Peter Leigh is a Christian minister sent to the planet “Oasis”. He's replacing the last minister who had mysteriously “gone native”.

Christian missions in foreign lands are fraught with problems and the spectre of past indiscretions but here the natives hunger for the “technique of Jesus” and to learn from the “Book of Strange New Things”. It's a rare seduction to be so readily embraced, the Oasans going so far as to halt trade with the human settlers until a replacement minister arrives. While Peter's every word falls on devout ears his wife back at home finds no succour in his messages while her world seems to fall apart in his absence. Food shortages, riots, natural disasters, economic ruin and tragedies both global and close to home plague her.

Author Michael Faber is himself an atheist but never treats minister Peter Leigh as a caricature and avoids the obvious. He treats his faith with sincerity and we have a minister who truly believes.

I don't often consider the author when I read but here, with a book shot through with rich metaphor, I can't help it. An atheist who lost his wife to disease prompting him to call this his last book - writing about faith, vast insurmountable distances, the problems of success shared as another suffers. (Faber is also the author of Under the Skin recently made into a movie starring Scarlett Johansson) This thing works on so many levels.