Shelf life: Looking at secular books

THE GHOSTS OF EDEN
By Andrew J.H. Sharp
Picnic Publishing. 370 pages. £10.00
ISBN 978-0-95586-133-8

In this novel, Andrew Sharp is a grown up ‘Miss-kid’; he works as a GP in Leicester and comes from an illustrious line of (mostly medical) missionaries. He was brought up in Uganda where his parents established a hospital before Idi Amin’s rise to power. It’s no wonder then, that the protagonist of this, his first novel is a surgeon, the son of missionaries, brought up in Uganda.

The story moves between Michael’s present, as he returns for the first time to Uganda for a conference, and his childhood, as well as the childhood of a Ugandan boy, Stanley, whose path he will cross as the novel develops. Little by little Michael’s troubles are revealed, but it is only late in the book that they are resolved in an unexpected and satisfying manner. This movement is effective, highlighting ironies and contrasts between the characters and between their situations; it provides a depth to the carefully wrought plot.

Brilliant observation

The sections seen from a child’s perspective, first Michael’s and then Stanley’s, are compelling and well written. They show vividly a child’s adulation of parents and awareness of transgression. These sections grab the reader’s sympathies and imagination. From the boarding school dormitory to the grass hut, they are really well drawn, with a gentle humour and a brilliant observation of the speech patterns of children. The visit of two boys to a diamond merchant on a Sunday is really memorable, as are the painful sibling dynamics played out in an African village. In my opinion these make the book; I found the adult characters less convincing. Andrew Sharp has set himself a hard task in making his main character, Michael, a repressed and, at times, arrogant man, as it is hard to empathise with this surgeon who is so distanced from other people.

Spiritual world

The novel is shot through with an awareness of a powerful spiritual world; fetishes are suspended on trees, hymns are sung, prayers prayed and a witchdoctor is consulted. Michael fears his past but as the novel progresses he is brought back to the environment he was brought up in, with all its serenity and certainty. It would be easy for Andrew Sharp, as a Christian writer, to provide an over-neat resolution, but wisely he avoids this. Michael does not quickly or easily come to terms with the events of the past, nor is there in any sense a conversion. Instead we see a picture of the fear and desolation of a life without faith, and the security and hope that faith brings.

Sarah Allen