HOUSE OF SOULS
By Richard Thor Collins
Stardust Books. 385 pages. £10.99
ISBN 978 1 739 166 502
Christian fiction is not everyone’s cup of tea and is rarely reviewed in these hallowed pages. However, House of Souls is a triumph of the imagination.
Aidan Manning is a London barrister with a flourishing career – and a fatal flaw. Evelyn Machin is a trauma surgeon from Los Angeles who saves lives every day. They live over 5,000 miles apart and yet, one night in 2005, they wake up in an entirely different sphere of consciousness. Same place, near a house on a wind-swept cliff top. Same souls. Different bodies.
Led by three angelic guides, they embark on a journey through the deepest questions of life. Travelling from Rwanda to the American Deep South… from the sinking hulk of the Titanic to the crucifixion, they go in search of answers. Burdened by their own pasts, they discover not only insight but the healing and redemptive power of love.
Moving between these spheres of consciousness, two questions continue to torment our heroes. Who do they keep meeting in their ‘dream’? And, if it’s just a dream, why are they falling in love? Their desperate quest for knowledge – and each other – leads to extraordinary discoveries. About life. About God. And about the meaning of their own lives.
For fans of C.S. Lewis and critics of The Shack, this book wrestles sensitively with the problem of evil and free will through beautifully crafted and compelling narrative. Richard Thor Collins proves to be a sure-footed storyteller. Unfolding through courtroom drama, love story and family saga, at its heart this book is a life-affirming defence of God in the face of human suffering. Capturing the heights of joy and the depths of sorrow, House of Souls is a story that reveals a deep and unparalleled love – the love of the Father for us in the midst of our pain, a pain which he Himself knows only too well.
Prepare to read a book you’ll find hard to put down. God claims to be loving and good. And yet He remains silent in the face of our suffering. Will House of Souls offer you any satisfying answers? You’ll have to decide!
