- Paperback: 496 pages
- Publisher: Vintage (1 Nov 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0099422638
- ISBN-13: 978-0099422631
- Product Dimensions: 19.7 x 12.9 x 4 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,114,687 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
In 1899 William McQuiggan leaves his young Australian wife and new-born twins in New Zealand and travels to America in search of God. Belief is the story of his journey and of his marriage to Myra, who follows him from Auckland to Salt Lake City, Utah, and to Zion City, Illinois. With each leg of the journey the family grows until William is the reluctant father of six, and Myra's understanding of her husband deepens and matures. Belief is a vivid evocation of a way of life that has passed, a tale told on a grand scale: the story spans seventeen years, three countries and three religions. More than that, it is the story of how love and patience may triumph over violence and despair.
About the Author
Stephanie Johnson is an accomplished writer whose work includes plays for stage and radio, poetry, scriptwriting and novels. She was shortlisted for the 1999 Montana Book Awards for her previous novel, The Whistler. Her novel The Hearts Wild Surf was a great success in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. She is co-founder of the Auckland Writer's Festival and the 2000 Katherine Mansfield Fellow.
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2 reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
dark historical fiction
12 May 2002
Format:Hardcover
In late nineteenth century New Zealand, William McQuiggan, a victim of child abuse, strikes out at those who love him such as his wife Myra. William finds solace only in alcohol. However, while working in the hated fields, a drunken William sees a vision. He decides to go on a quest in search of God.
William leaves behind his pregnant wife and journeys across the Pacific to Utah where he joins the Mormons. When he concludes that religion as bogus, he tries the Jehovah's Witnesses, but feels that movement is a sham. He next heads to Illinois to join Dr. Alexander Dowie's Zion City utopia before souring on that faction. While on his American adventure, his wife and twin children finally join him and soon more children follow. He becomes further unhinged until he returns home in a last ditch effort to reach God through his own church.
Stephanie Johnson paints a dark work of historical fiction in that there is little hope beyond bleakness even for those who believe in God. The story line is vivid as it describes several locales, the era, and religions with clarity and depth. William is a wonderfully drawn character whose slow descent into a self-made hell makes BELIEF work though readers will tire of the abused Myra traipsing after her man.
Harriet Klausner
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Despair and defeat
4 Feb 2006
Format:Hardcover
This novel, which takes place mainly in New Zealand and America, details the story of two characters who travel down self-destructive paths. William, after believing that God revealed Himself to him while on a drunken night on his farm, obsesses over finding God and embarks on a spiritual journey that eventually drains him of his sanity. Myra, William's wife, who despite the abuse she consistently suffers from her husband, always finds a way to love him again. The author takes you into the mind of each of the characters to know why they choose their paths as such, though readers may grow weary of the suffering that Myra and her children repeatedly have to go through with William. Although mostly depressing, the novel has its small bright moments with other characters who serve as friends to Myra.
As an American who has lived in New Zealand, I found the author's descriptions were able to paint a very detailed picture in my mind of what life was like in both of these places 100 years ago. Through occasional flashbacks, Stephanie Johnson creates a large detailed world geographically and chronologically.
As an American who has lived in New Zealand, I found the author's descriptions were able to paint a very detailed picture in my mind of what life was like in both of these places 100 years ago. Through occasional flashbacks, Stephanie Johnson creates a large detailed world geographically and chronologically.
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