This is from Seth’s blog today; our buddy, Tom Davis has his new book ready to be read! Please pick up a copy…
Scared – A Novel on the Edge of the World from Children’s HopeChest on Vimeo
Tom Davis is a covenant brother, so let me just get the conflict-of-interest stuff out of the way; even if he wrote a stinker, I’d probably still find something nice to say about it. Four years ago he and I along with Andrew Shearman and Gary Black committed to one another and to working together to bring the kingdom. There was so much I didn’t understand at the time. For example, Tom’s commitment to orphans. I didn’t have a clue how deep in him that went. Later, God charged me to help take care of his orphans, and now Tom and I are working together to care for several thousand orphans. But four years ago, I couldn’t begin to envision it. When you make promises to one another like that, it’s an act of faith as much as anything.
Although he’s written a number of books, Scared is Tom’s first novel. I remember how the process consumed him. His comment upon finishing it was something profound like, “Man, writing a novel is hard!”
So he sent me a preview pdf copy. Reading it was effortless. What a thrill to see the backdrop of Swaziland, that AIDS-devastated country that I’ve come to care about so deeply. Similarly, to see many of our experiences in the book gave me that peculiar feeling of art imitating life. There was Pastor Walter, one of the first Swazis I worked with in 2004. There was the familiar Swazi landscape. There was the experience with the large ministry that was, as they say in Texas, “all hat and no cattle.”
The problem in connecting American readers to Swazi issues has always been the great cultural divide between us. We are individualistic and self-aware. We live complicated lives. Swazis are fortunate to live past 30 – they struggle with basic life issues.
Tom bridges this gap by intertwining the lives of an American photographer and a young Swazi orphan girl. Both are confronted with huge life issues and both have something that the other one needs. There is a little bit of all of us in them. All of us confront our mortality with a measure of the fear that the book’s title implies. And all of us need someone to pull us into a reality that is larger than ourselves.
How is it different from Red Letters or Fields of the Fatherless, Tom’s other books about orphans? By placing real issues in the context of a story, it makes them more accessible. As far as I know, five of us have read a preliminary copy of the book. The comments of three of the other reviewers should tell you everything you need to know:
“It was AMAZING. Seriously, a must read.” – Brandi McIlhaney
“Tears were flowing down my cheeks through a good portion of the book. I don’t recommend reading this in public because you’d have a hard time getting past the lump in your throat to explain just what it was that evoked that level of emotion in you. I’m not exaggerating. You’d have to have a heart of stone not to be emotionally moved when you read Scared. The entire time I read this book I was in Africa right along with the characters. That’s great writing.”
“I couldn’t put it down. I feel he has a best seller here. It read allot like the book Same Kinda Different as Me which sold millions. Please tell him thanks for putting added fire in my soul to be a part of what God is doing in Swaziland.” – Tami Kesling
Well done, Tom. Thanks for daring to put down in novel form the issues that break God’s heart.
Although Scared is due out June 1, you can order your copy now.
