This book has held position #1 on the New York Times bestseller list since early June and, after reading this delightful novel, I suspect that it will be on the list for years— and will hold the #1 position for months to come.

The hero of the book is Mack. He is a regular guy who, despite a rough upbringing, is working hard to live the American values of job, commitment to his wife and children, reasonable involvement with his church, etc. Everything falls apart, though, when his youngest daughter is kidnapped and murdered while on a family camping trip and her body found in a shack far in the wilderness (hence, the name of the book). Mack then falls into a depression he calls “the sadness.” He remains functional but there is no joy anymore, just a long-term, years-long numbness.

One day he checks the mailbox and there is a note saying, “It’s been a while. I’ve missed you. I’ll be at the shack next weekend if you want to get together. - Papa” ‘Papa’ is the term his wife uses for God while praying. Mack’s mind races—could this be a message from God? Is this a cruel joke from the kidnapper? Without telling his family, he decides to go to the shack, bringing along a gun.

When he gets to the shack, the door is opened, yes, by God! And this is where the book gets really good as God, as three residents of the shack, interacts with Mack. The author, William P. Young, rolls together theology, spirituality, psychology, Christology—you name it—into a really good narrative that never gets schmaltzy or hokey or predictably pious. During the course of the weekend, Mack asks God all the questions we have all wanted to ask God at some time or other. The replies and insights that God gives throughout the book are really thought-provoking and ‘right on.’ The book provides a valuable service in portraying God more in accord with how Jesus portrayed God, oftentimes correcting our commonly held, but flawed, images of God. And that is probably why this book is such a runaway bestseller. William P. Young has obviously thought long and hard about God, about life, about the role of faith, about salvation, about sin and evil, and has thought it out well. This reminds me of a great saint of the Church, Therese of Lisieux, who did the same and sometimes came to some unsettling but ‘right on’ conclusions herself.

Is the book perfect? Some will say it has a simplistic image of God. Some will say it has a Protestant-flavored image of God. Some will say it has a Catholic-flavored image of God. And those convinced that their image of God is absolutely right may feel threatened by the book. If you are looking for theological treatises and catechismal correctedness, then look elsewhere. Otherwise, I suspect when you open the cover, you will keep reading. It is that good.