Sinners’ Garden by William Sirls #review

Hope, love and forgiveness. Finding God in all the quiet and small places. This powerful novel, The Sinners’ Garden has it all.

The Sinners’ Garden is set in the small township of Benning. Andy Kemp is one of the main characters of this novel. His life has been centered around the scars that mar his face. His face had been disfigured by an abusive father and he now hides his pain behinds books and anger. His Uncle Rip returns from prison a different and more religious man. He becomes a mentor for his nephew, trying all he can do to help ease Andy’s pain. When Andy begins to hear strange music through his iPod and making near prophetic announcements to those around him, Rip is convinced that Andy is hearing the voice of God.

Local police officer, Heather Gerisch, responds to a late night break in and enter in a poorer area of town. The masked prowler has left thousands of dollars in grocery gift cards! The bizarre break ins continue and is dubbed the “Summer Santa”. Andy and Rip discover an enormous and well kept garden of wildflowers that seem to have grown overnight. They speculate on whom the gardener could be and soon a spree of miracles transforms the small town from a place of hopelessness into a place of healing and beauty.

This novel was so moving and touched me deeply. It touched on so many difficulty topics of abuse, poverty, pain, forgiveness and healing. It forced me to open my eyes and remember that God is all around us. Sometimes life can become so busy that we forget that God is there listening to us and guiding us. We just need to slow down and listen to Him.

It can be so difficult to forgive those that have hurt us. This novel makes you realize how important the healing process is and if we don’t forgive we will continue to hurt. I loved how real the characters were. They were normal people, they were imperfect and their lives did not end in a happy fairy tale ending just because they were in a novel. This is a definite must read.

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Rating: 5/5

Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book for the purpose to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.