God's House

Scrolling down this page will bring you to links for sampling various file-types of the novel. God's House is a novel in three parts. In the first part, —Return to God's House—like her namesake in Pilgrim's Progress, Chrischana Twitchell is fleeing a destructive life in a place she thinks of as the City of Destruction. With her three sons she returns to Gottheim, Maine, and an uncertain welcome in the Meguntic Mountains she loves. Called Gott'im by its inhabitants, this rural village and surrounding wilderness are changing with the influx of newcomers. Tensions between descendents of yankee settlers and those 'from away' have made it a place in transition where neighbors struggle to know one another in a real way. Return to God's House is the first book of God's House.

—Within Without— is the second book in God's House, the story of a rural Maine village in transition. Full of local color and character, it continues the story of Chrischana Twitchell's return to Gott'im, and introduces Peter Prince, her troubled common-law spouse who follows her from the desert to reclaim his family. As a stranger in Gottheim he experiences bitter truths, and redeeming hopes, about himself and the nature of life in God's House.

—In Winter— is the third book in God's House. Here begins increasing mythic qualities as Jasper Mountain comes alive, and nature redounds with fury to her glory. The wild creatures and inhabitants of Gott'im suffer.... And, too, they benefit from the recoil of human erring on a grand scale. When it so happens, in God's House, setting the stage for them to enter into God's Wilderness. God's Wilderness—to be published—is the completion of The God's Cycle.

The God's Cycle is five books, in two parts. In chronological order:

GOD'S HOUSE.

1. Return to God's House.
2. Within Without (a.k.a. Within Without God's House).
3. In Winter (a.k.a. God's House in Winter).

GOD'S WILDERNESS.
4. Mystery Gottheim.
5. Balder's Wilderness.

Plus Gott'im's Monster.