A tale of Wisconsin – Little Faith by Nickolas Butler

Submitted: 15th January 2020

Rural Wisconsin, faith and the meaning of life

Some novels are so evocative of time and place that they allow you to wallow and wander. This novel does just that by recreating the sense of dusty, rural Wisconsin and the promise of faith and religion. It’s a novel where the daughter of a family returns from the big city, but gets involved with a new church. The parents think it’s some sort of sect or cult and are wary. The daughter takes her young son, deeper and deeper into its fold making the old grandparents worry and question their place in the world.

In a place where religion and faith are key, this is a soul-searching look into life itself.

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Setting: Rural Wisconsin, farmland

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This novel is like someone walking up behind you, wrapping a blanket around you while you both sit and talk as the sun goes down. It’s a slow-burn, a quiet and unassuming read and it’s one which provides a lot of discussion afterwards

Lyle and Peg – could there be a more adorable elderly couple in a novel? They have suffered tragedy and so have little faith in religion. This is the language of these parts however and when daughter Shiloh clearly is starting to become more involved in a new church, they worry for her and her young son’s mental health and the consequences of what could be a cult. This new church believes that the young boy has powers which could heal the sick!

The novel is all about faith in various degrees. Lyle is worried about family, faith, his own lack of faith and questions life as he sits in his home in rural Wisconsin. This is a piece of their world, their small world and they now feel the wider world, that cruel place of religious fanaticism has invaded their lives.

The setting is calm and quiet. It is dry and hot, calm and covered by farmland. Below the calm surface however, there is a storm brewing. The book is written in seasons and we get to see the changing landscape; the buds and the wilting leaves, the storms and the calm….

A novel of faith but so much more.