"The Body of This" - Short Story Collection by a Catholic Writer

Years ago, I discovered that very few 'religious' book publishers would bother their editors with works of fiction.

I don't know what's behind this aversion to fiction. There's probably a perfectly good reason.

But I've wondered if a lack of focused industry support is part of the reason why G. K. Chesterton's "Father Brown" mysteries, C. S. Lewis' "Narnia" stories and his "Out of the Silent Planet" trilogy, and Roger B. Thomas' "The Last Ugly Person" are among the very few memorable - and readable - bits of fiction with a specifically Christian outlook.

Somehow, Andrew McNabb found a publisher for "The Body of This," a collection of short stories. Amazon's product description calls it "ethereal," but it might make good reading anyway. The collection includes stories are about:

• A man giving up a winning lottery ticket to keep his wandering girlfriend
• A Sudanese refugee discovering the simple beauty of a new way home
• A mother seeing her true self reflected in her newborn son's albinism
• An awkward seminarian seeking a wife during a single night out
  (Amazon)

My favorite of those descriptions, at this point, is the one involving the seminarian with a tight schedule.

I wish Andrew McNabb well. He's got a website (andrew-mcnabb.com - shouldn't be all that hard to remember), with a picture of himself, another of the book's cover, three glowing reviews, and links to three places you can buy his book: Indie Bookseller; Amazon; and Catholic Bookseller.

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A tip of the hat to AMcNabb (himself), on Twitter, for the heads-up.