Debra Murphy, CatholicFiction.net editor, has written an article on the fiction of English novelist Ian McEwan. First published last winter in Second Spring Journal, Debra’s article, “A Christian looks at the fiction of Ian McEwan”, is now available online at CatholicExchange. Here’s how the article begins: Two things need to be gotten out of the [...]
Exiles by Ron Hansen
October 5, 2009 Leave a Comment
reviewed by Christy Isinger Many novels could be written about the life and work of Catholic poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. Ron Hansen’s Exiles entwines the religious life and struggles of Hopkins with the five heroic nuns who lost their lives in a shipwreck and became the inspiration of Hopkins’ great poem, The Wreck of the [...]
A World Away by T. J. Smith
February 27, 2009 Leave a Comment
reviewed by Tannia E. Ortiz-Lopès A World Away is author T.J. Smith’s first book in the Quest of Dan Clay series, a leap of faith saga to save a missing older brother from an evil parallel world. The book cover shows a gloomy castle standing on the top of a mountain, surrounded by creepy trees [...]
A Canticle for Liebowitz, by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
August 3, 2007 1 Comment
reviewed by Marilyn Prever This 1959 science fiction classic gives a new twist to the familiar post-nuclear war story: it follows the life of an American Catholic monastery from the new Dark Ages after the devastation of World War Three, through the slow re-building of civilization (a span of several thousand years), right up to [...]
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
April 5, 2007 1 Comment
reviewed by John Murphy “Two magicians shall appear in England…” I tend to catch the tail-end of trends, like an enthusiastic gate-crasher at a party long since broken-up. When friends and family suggest—nay, insist—that I must, I absolutely must watch such-and-such a movie, listen to such-and-such a CD, or read such-and-such a book … well, [...]
The Power and the Glory, by Graham Greene
December 21, 2006 3 Comments
Reviewed by John Murphy Yours, Now and Forever The last priest in Mexico is on the run. The Church has gone underground, outlawed by the incumbent Powers-that-Be. Owning a rosary or a prayer book will land you in jail. Faithful Catholics thirst for the Mass, for the Eucharist, for God, but must content themselves with [...]
Come Rack! Come Rope! by Robert Hugh Benson
January 20, 2006 Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Christine J. Murray Robert Hugh Benson’s historical novel about the persecution of Catholics under the rule of Elizabeth I is one of his more popular even to this day. He wrote Come Rack! Come Rope! after being invited to preach at a retreat held at Padley in 1911—the site of a hidden chapel [...]
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