Hope Road

My Hands Came Away Red [Lisa McKay]

My Hands Came Away Red by Lisa McKay *****

What a refreshing departure from the norm! I couldn’t help but be interested when I saw that this book was listed as “one of Christian fiction’s best novels of the year” by Publishers Weekly. It more than lives up to that claim. This is the third of my favorite Christian novels I’ve read in 2007 - the first being Adelaide Piper by Beth Webb Hart, the second Feeling for Bones by Bethany Pierce.

The protagonist of this compelling novel is eighteen-year-old Cori, an Australian native who grew up as an MK in Kenya and is now living in the States. Wanting to escape from a complicated love life, she goes on a missions trip to an Indonesian island the summer after her high school graduation. But when the trip goes horribly wrong as a result of religious tensions in the area, she and her teammates are left to get out alone with only an Indonesian teenager to guide them.

What follows is a physical, emotional, and spiritual journey that is nothing less than beautifully conveyed. It is gripping and yet tender, told in unpretentious but intricate language and flawless dramatic timing. It is a story to live in, to experience. There is no way not to become emotionally involved with the characters. Religious battles, spiritual struggles are portrayed with raw honesty and fairness and open-endedness. There is truth in this story. There is orthodoxy. But there is also a willingness to leave questions unanswered, to suggest rather than to explain what cannot be fully understood.

When I closed the cover of the book after I was finished, I was regretful to leave the characters I’d grown to love. And I was intimidated to ever try writing again, because I thought, I could never write this skillfully. I can only hope that there will be many follow-ups to this excellent debut.

Recommended age level: 15+.