As a God Might Be - Softcover

Neil Griffiths

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0993575846 ISBN 13: 9780993575846

Publisher: Dodo Ink, 2017

Synopsis

When Proctor McCullough decides to desert his comfortable London life to build a church on a clifftop, nobody knows what to make of it: McCullough is not religious. Is it a midlife crisis? Has he gone mad? Is he suffering a spiritual breakdown in a secular age, where identity is shaped by wealth and status? Or has he really been chosen by God for a new revelation?

McCullough finds himself torn between love for his family and a group of local drifters who are helping him to build his church. When one of these drifters commits a shocking act to test his beliefs, McCullough finds himself pushed to the very limits of understanding and forgiveness.

As a God Might Be is an epic novel, and Proctor McCullough is a complex and deeply human character struggling to cope with the grand issues of modern life.

"Imagine, if you can, a contemporary novel with the theological engagement of Dostoyevsky and the ethical seriousness of George Eliot... As a God Might Be addresses some of the most serious and pressing questions about our twenty-first century sense of identity without either cynicism or soppiness and it will confront all open-hearted (or minded) readers with themselves and the universe they stand in. This is a strange, disturbing and extremely beautiful novel. It is the sort of novel I thought could not be written nowadays. How lovely and exciting to be wrong" -- Sara Maitland, A Book of Silence

"A bold, provocative and disorienting novel. Its metaphysical questing, moral conundrums and sexual entanglements are worthy of Iris Murdoch." -- Michael Arditti, Easter

"There is no middle flight about this mighty novel. And at its heart there is that divine madness which is the mark of the true work of art." -- Mike McCormack, Solar Bones

"As a God Might Be is written with energy and vividness and deals uncompromisingly honestly with the human complexities of encountering and speaking about God." -- Rowan Williams, Former Archbishop of Canterbury

"As a God Might Be is a stunning existential drama - concerned principally with the reasonable unreason of a modern-day Brand or Fitzcarraldo, and, furthermore, the mortal struggle to find a path through life, to nurture those we love, to achieve anything at all, however tenuous and time-beleaguered. Beautifully written and brilliantly conceived - a monumental achievement." -- Joanna Kavenna, A Field Guide to Reality

"The ambition and moral sweep of the novel is brilliant as is the gentle but insistent voice." -- Paul Pickering, Over the Rainbow

"This huge novel is a magnificent achievement - ambitious, complex, challenging and startlingly good. There's been nothing like it in fiction since Earthly Powers." -- David Collard

About this title

About the Author

Neil Griffiths is the author of the two previous novels - Betrayal in Naples, winner of the Authors Club Best First Novel, and Saving Caravaggio, shortlisted for the Costa Novel of the Year, both published by Penguin. Neil is also the founder of the Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dodo Ink
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0993575846
• ISBN 13: 9780993575846
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 599