BROKEN LIGHT is a tightly structured novel that is deeply rooted in the Christian tradition of the Venerable Bede and St Augustine of Hippo. It is intended to engage and persuade those who might be looking for meaning in a dark and frightening world. Like many spiritual writings of the Church, it takes the salvation of one human soul and asks the reader to see in that one rescue the whole human condition and our own personal relationship with Jesus.
This is J. K. Denning’s first novel, set in the Durham that she has made her home. In 1996, Adam Hunter, an academic in English at the University, is going through a crisis. In November, in the depths, in a storm, he takes refuge in an ancient church and has a spiritual encounter that terrifies him and becomes an obsession. He realises that only Lucy, a humble administrator in his department whom he has often bullied and belittled, can help him to navigate this strange world that he finds himself in after he has glimpsed a God whom he did not believe in.
Each chapter of their deepening relationship (with its erudite conversation about faith and truth and identity) is followed by a poetic extract from the newly discovered manuscript that Hunter is translating — which tells of the quest that the novice Alwin took to Rome in the seventh century with his Abbot, Biscop of Jarrow, to bring threads of creative beauty back to their monastery. As Alwin explores the world, the faith, and the heart, his story and Adam’s become interwoven through words and poetry.
It is a brave and engaging book, which is full of ideas and moments of beauty. It would be the source of rich and inspiring disagreement in book groups, because some people will love it, while others will find that the allegory, the structure, and the love of ideas is too heavy a weight for the story and the characters quite to carry.
The Revd Richard Lamey is Director of Mission and Ministry in the diocese of Norwich.
Broken Light
J. K. Denning
Sacristy Press £14.99
(978-1-78959-352-5)
Church Times Bookshop £13.49