vaguely religious

[DoctorGilbertson]

Hi,

I like fiction with religious settings or references - not books about religion just religious contexts. (like Chaim Potok or Patrick Gale)

Any thoughts?

Thanks

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder. Not overly religious but it's about fate and our place in the universe.

Oh and Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. It's got the devil in Moscow, Pontius Pilate finding redemption.

I also loved the red tent. Also worth checking out an author called Francine Rivers... I have read several but particularly loved one called Redeeming Love. Couldn't put it down.

Was going to say Frost In May. Absolutely love that book.

How to be Good (Nick Hornby) and The Handmaiden's Tale (Margaret Atwood) are two novels that aren't about religion, but are about characters very influenced by religious ideas (renouncing worldliness, doing charity, madonna/whore division etc). Both very readable, and the Atwood is one of my favourite books.

I was going to recommend the Ken Follet cathedral books. If you like e.g John Grisham you might like them as Follet is primarily a thriller writer but wrote these ones out of a lifelong obsession with Cathedrals, having been brought up in an extreme brethren sect. I loved them.

Glad you're finding Mission readable DoctorGilbertson

Please update when you've finished it as I'm always interested in hearing what people make of it

I know it's been a while but on the off chance you still see this....how did you find Mission?

Christ Recrucified - Nikos Kazatzakis

Gilead is fantastic! I also love The Name of the Rose (intellectual murder mystery set in medieval monastery) and The Handmaid's Tale.

I'm a bit meh about Poisonwood Bible to be honest. I once discussed it with a very intelligent feisty woman who been a Baptist missionary in the Congo in the 50s/60s. Apparently just about everything in it regarding missions and missionaries is totally daft and inaccurate.

The Last Testament of Gideon Mack (James Robertson)
The Hiding Place (Corrie ten Boom)
Mister God, This is Anna (Fynn)

Sacred Hearts ( Sarah Dunant)

Two others that have just popped to mind :

Father Frank (very lighthearted romp about a Catholic priest and a taxi. By Paul Burke, I think)
The Thorn Birds (by Coleen something or other)

The Spire by William Golding and Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey