The Emmaus Readers: More Listening for God in Contemporary Fiction

 

The Emmaus Readers—that eclectic multi-disciplinary group of book-lovers at Calvin College in Michigan—have again set out to find what is implicitly and explicitly spiritual in the fiction that frequents the bestsellers lists. Choosing novels of historical fiction, fantasy, realism, and detection, they guide and question, showing ways in which readers and book groups might approach fiction from within the contexts of their own faith.

 

            Novels discussed in this volume:

 

Leila Aboulela, The Translator                                   Allegra Goodman, Intuition

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Purple Hibiscus           Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

Mischa Berlinski, Fieldwork                                       Edward P. Jones, The Known World

Geraldine Brooks, March                                           Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union      Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux                   José Saramago, Blindness

 

Praise for The Emmaus Readers –

"Discussing a literary work is commonplace in academia, but discussing it through spiritual and religious channels of discourse is less so and, indeed, incredibly valuable. This work functions well as a tool for sparking conversations about society, culture, humanity and spirituality in the light of secular literature. Highly recommended." –Library Journal                                   

 

 

 

Editors Susan M. Felch and Gary D. Schmidt are both professors of English. Felch is the author of Elizabeth Tyrwhit’s Morning and Evening Prayers, and Schmidt is the author of Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy and The Wednesday Wars, both Newbery Honor Books.