A Simple Carpenter

Part biblical fable, part magic realism, and part thriller. A ship’s carpenter becomes stranded on a small Mediterranean island. He has completely lost his memory but in exchange has acquired the ability to speak, write, and understand all languages. After his rescue, he spends time in a Lebanese coastal village recuperating with a group of nuns who, observing him perform what appear to be small miracles, take him to be the second coming of Jesus Christ. Later, in Beirut, he’s hired as a translator for the UN peacekeeping force, and is recruited as a messenger for Black September. Feeling disillusioned with both of these occupations, he treks on foot across the Galilean hills to the Sea of Galilee, encountering a series of strange communities evoking biblical times. He eventually settles with a Palestinian family and unwittingly becomes entangled in a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth.

AUTHOR

Dave Margoshes

Dave Margoshes is a fiction writer and poet living in Regina, SK. He grew up in the US and attended schools in New York City, rural New Jersey, Vermont, and Iowa. The author of twelve books, including three novels, Margoshes has had his work published in numerous magazines and anthologies throughout North America, including six times in the Best Canadian Stories volumes. Margoshes worked as a newspaper reporter in the US and Canada, and has taught journalism and creative writing. He was writer-in-residence in Winnipeg and Saskatoon and has led creative writing workshops across Canada. His writing has won a number of awards, including the City of Regina Writing Award, the John V. Hicks Award for Fiction, and the Stephen Leacock Prize for Poetry.

Reviews

“ltpgtDave Margoshess ltigtA Simple Carpenterltigt is many things a meditation on memory and identity on religious faith and doubt on the yearning for a messiah and on the perennially tangled fraught state of ArabIsraeli relations Out of all these elements he has constructed a tale that is part mystery and part fable that blends present day realities with myth and magic This is a novel as beguiling as it is ambitious ltbrgt Guy Vanderhaeghe Author of ltigtAugust Into Winterltigt ltbrgtltbrgtltbrgt Dave Margoshes new novel ltigtA Simple Carpenterltigt is fully original and equally surprising part fable part travelogue complete with historical details and occasionally political part postmodern mystery sometimes the reader suspects approaching a revelatory religious text replete with extraordinary happenings that might be miracles or not including helpful monkeys Biblical creatures and a large black bird As the carpenter wanders on his notquitequest or is it I followed Margoshes heroantihero with unflagging interest focusing hard to figure out who he actually is what the story really is and where it could be going This is a novel written out of deep thought enormous cleverness leavened by a satirical sense of humour I was riveted right to the startling ending I cant recommend ltigtA Simple Carpenterltigt highly enoughltbrgt Sharon Butala author of ltigtLeaving Wisdomltigtltbrgtltbrgtltbrgtltbrgt ltpgt”