In this moving new novel from celebrated author Nickolas Butler, a Wisconsin family grapples with the power and limitations of faith when one of their own falls under the influence of a radical church Lyle Hovde is at the onset of his golden years, living a mostly content life in rural Wisconsin with his wife, Peg, daughter, Shiloh, and six-year old grandson, Isaac. After a troubled adolescence … After a troubled adolescence and subsequent estrangement from her parents, Shiloh has finally come home. But while Lyle is thrilled to have his whole family reunited, he’s also uneasy: in Shiloh’s absence, she has become deeply involved with an extremist church, and the devout pastor courting her is convinced Isaac has the spiritual ability to heal the sick.
While reckoning with his own faith—or lack thereof—Lyle soon finds himself torn between his unease about the church and his desire to keep his daughter and grandson in his life. But when the church’s radical belief system threatens Isaac’s safety, Lyle is forced to make a decision from which the family may not recover.
Set over the course of one year and beautifully evoking the change of seasons, Little Faith is a powerful and deeply affecting intergenerational novel about family and community, the ways in which belief is both formed and shaken, and the lengths we go to protect our own.
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I never would have read “Little Faith” by Nickolas Butler without a recommendation from author Jane Kirkpatrick. This novel was based upon a real incident that happened in Minnesota in 2008 involving a cult. The writing is superb. Questions of faith, miracles, and just common everyday life are raised and discussed with depth and compassion. I highly recommend this book to all. I will remember it for a long time because of the descriptions of the land and the wonderful characters. I have added “The Hearts of Men” to my TBR list.
When you finish this book you will still have question with no set answers. Very interesting premise.
What would you do if your grandchild could heal the sick?
What would you if your grandchild’s mother believed he could heal the sick?
In this poignant story of a grandfather, who has lost his faith, and the grandson he adores, the author poses tough questions about traditional, evangelical, and non-believers views of God and religion. The setting in a rural, dying area offers the perfect backdrop for the drama. The apple farm may be more than symbolic.
It presented a fairly realistic view of how people get caught up in false or empty religion, even if they’re looking for the real. Or not looking at all, but become pulled in. Sometimes with the a truer result.
Not a fan. The book is well written and I could relate well to the characters. The subject matter was maybe too real for me. I am in the medical profession and read to escape reality rather than wallow in it. The ending is ambiguous.
This is a story of a mother coming under the influence of a cult leader. Her son almost dies because of her insistence upon using prayer for healing rather than professional doctors and hospitals. In that sense, this story is scary.
These are my people: my great-grandparents settled in the part of the Midwest Butler is writing about, so I would love the book just for his depiction. But even if you’re not from Wisconsin or Minnesota, you’ll love this tale about a grandfather trying to protect his grandson once a cult (which his daughter has joined) decides the little boy is a healer.
depresssing
Good story. Didn’t want to end .
I loved the story and the characters. The ending was a bit vague.
I would have given this a much much higher rating but for the ending. There really isn’t one. I actually thought to myself that that couldn’t have been the end Throughout the book you are treated to a delight of descriptions and then… nothing.
Loved it.
A novel as tender and generous as any I’ve read. It’s a three a.m. I gotta get some sleep but can’t stop reading sorta book. Heart stoppingly good.
This was definitely a story that tugged at my heart. It is based on a true story that happened in my home state of Wisconsin. The information is in the author’s notes at the end of the book. This book was a 4 ½ rounded up to a 5 for amazing character development and descriptive writing.
Oh there were so many things I loved about this book. First off the characters! Lyle is in his golden years and quite happy now that he has his daughter and grandson back in his life. He fills his time working at an apple orchard with his great friend Otis. It is a lot of work to tend an orchard but the two men seem to love what they do, enjoying the great outdoors.
Lyle and his wife Peg were only able to have one child, a son, who passed away when he was a toddler. “The heaviest thing in the world is the coffin that carries the weight of a child, for no adult who has ever borne that burden will ever forget it.” There is a mystery of sorts as to how they came about adopting Shiloh which I will leave you to discover. She was always quite headstrong and when she was out of high school she set out on her own, moving from her small Wisconsin town to the Twin Cities. She came back home with a little boy, Isaac, whose father she will never talk about. Soon Isaac is so deeply entwined in his grandparents lives that they can’t imagine their life without him.
Shiloh continues to work outside of her small town and she falls in love with a very radical preacher, Steven, a “fire and brimstone” type of man who is very charismatic. Shiloh is soon under his spell and believes everything he tells her including that Isaac is a “healer” which means that when he touches someone who is ill, he may be able to heal them.
Lyle has strong doubts about all of this but is cautioned by his friend Charlie, a minister, who tells him the best thing to do is to go along with things and stay as close as possible to Isaac, which he attempts to do. In the end, however, Shiloh insists that her son live with her and Steven.
There are other characters who are fully developed, Lyle’s friend, Hoot, is quite a colorful man and very strongly opinionated but has a heart of gold. He also has grown to love Isaac and is not at all impressed with Steven and his radical ideas. We get to know Hoot quite well as Lyle drives him to and from his doctor’s appointments.
Mr. Butler’s writing is very descriptive and it’s easy to see in my mind’s eye the changing of the seasons, the color of the Fall leaves and the ripening of the apples. “Isaac . . . .chewed this apple, which somehow tasted of tart raspberries and cream, its inner meat at once crunchy and softly ephemeral, dissolving like a cloud of cotton candy. He could not believe his taste buds and kept biting into the apple for more”. His writing pulled me in from the beginning and never let go.
This is a story of family, community, love, forgiveness and life in a rural Midwestern town. The characters were very believable to me and the only reason this was a 4 1/2 for me was because of the somewhat abrupt ending, I didn’t see it coming and was unprepared for the feelings that I still had for all of the characters, I didn’t want to let them go. This, I know, is what makes for a great and moving novel!
I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss.