The History of Christmas Ghost Stories
by Francis YoungTo tell dark stories at Christmas is to acknowledge the reality of the encompassing darkness into which the light of Christ is born. Continue Reading »
The Heart of the Christmas Story
by John WilsonIf among those on your Christmas gift list there are some who love reading “mysteries,” consider When Christmas Comes. Continue Reading »
What We’ve Been Reading—November 2021
by EditorsOur editors reflect on Czesław Miłosz, crime fiction, Roger Scruton, and the divine right of kings. Continue Reading »
We Are All Double Agents
by John WilsonIn a very real sense, we are all double or triple agents—such are the consequences of the Fall—and it is this condition that gives the best “spy fiction” such resonance. Continue Reading »
Books From a Parallel Time Stream
by John WilsonIt was almost as if the McHenry books existed in a parallel time stream and had somehow leaked into our own. Continue Reading »
Nordic Penelope
by Randy BoyagodaOh, to be married in the Middle Ages! Your parents would select your spouse. Relatives and the local lord would consider and approve the choice; the clergy would do likewise and bless the bond before God and family, parish and town. You’d know what to expect about the rest of your life because . . . . Continue Reading »
Papa Don’t Preach
by Randy BoyagodaFor about three years, I read fiction on my phone. I’d never done so before, and I haven’t since. I had to, during this period, because my wife and I were working our way through “The Neapolitan Quartet,” a series of novels by the Italian writer Elena Ferrante. The books were so readable . . . . Continue Reading »
The First Commandment of Fiction
by Joshua HrenIn his short story “The Trouble,” the American Catholic writer J. F. Powers refuses to stay in his lane. Continue Reading »
Flannery O’Connor and Friends, Revisited
by George WeigelGood Things Out of Nazareth, a collection of previously unpublished letters, is a powerful reminder of the intensity of Flannery O’Connor’s Catholic faith. Continue Reading »
The Breath of God
by Randy BoyagodaA conversation between novelist Randy Boyagoda and Doug Sikkema on Christian writing. Continue Reading »
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