A World Lost by Wendell Berry, 151 pages
Andy Catlett was nine years old when his favorite uncle and namesake was shot and killed. The murder left a void in little Andy's life, family, and community, a powerful absence strongly felt but unspoken. As the decades pass and Andy becomes a man, he explores this loss in many dimensions, even as he gradually comes to recognize that he will never really know why his uncle died.
A World Lost is short, powerful, and mysterious. Mysterious not because it is a whodunnit - the identity of Uncle Andrew's killer is never in doubt - but because it touches on deeper mysteries, mysteries involving the human person and the nature of sin. Berry does not try to solve these mysteries, he tries to understand them, and that begins with accepting that they cannot be solved. Who Uncle Andrew was is ultimately a question just as unanswerable - and infinitely more wonderful - as the questions surrounding his murder.
It's a quiet and stunningly powerful book. All of Wendell Berry is excellent, but this one is even better.
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