Land Without Sin

by Paula Huston

As revolutionary forces gather in the Lacandon jungle of southern Mexico in the fall of 1993, an idealistic American priest vanishes from his post in San Cristobal de Las Casas. The Church, immersed in trying to negotiate a peaceful solution to the escalating conflict between wealthy landowners and poverty-stricken indigenas, remains strangely silent in the face of his disappearance. When his sister, Eva, only thirty-four but already a hardened battlefield photojournalist, finds out what's going on, she flies to Central America to find him, taking a job assisting a taciturn Dutch Mayanist in order to provide herself with a cover. But as it turns out, he, too, is on a secret quest. From the great pyramids of Tikal and the graceful palaces of Palenque to the shadowy guerrilla camps of the vast Lacandon, A Land Without Sin is a modern-day journey into the heart of darkness.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction

310 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2013

Reviews

[Hannah Notess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, I loved this book. I recommend it for fans of Ann Patchett's State of Wonder or Mischa Berlinski's Fieldwork or novels by Barbara Kingsolver. I loved every single one of the characters and the many ways that Huston made me love them.

The narrator, Eva, is appealingly hard-headed and practical with a dose of spiritual angst. She goes to Mexico looking for her brother, Stephan, a rebellious priest who is heavy into Rene Girard's theories, and gets connected with a family of awkward archaeologists. I loved them all.

At times I was like "Woah, that is sooo much Girard. Lots of Girard! Am I back at the Oregon Extension?" But because Stephan the priest was into the Girardian stuff, it did fit within the story well. In that sense, Huston's novel reminded me of Kingsolver, whose characters occasionally spout off about global climate change, or whatever, but you can just go along with it because that's the type of people they are.

This makes me think about contemporary novels in general: Who are the writers who let their characters struggle with big ideas about how to live? Because I think a lot of contemporary novels really do shy away from letting characters struggle with big ideas/questions. Especially novels that actually have engaging plots. Sure, amazing and enlightening fiction can be written about characters who aren't on a big ol' existential quest. And I'm sure the big ol' existential quest is hard to write without being cheesy/preachy. But when it's done well, it's excellent - and even better when combined with an actual adventurous quest. So in other words, I found this book to be excellent.

[Julie Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Jan," I asked casually, "is this one of the glyphs that has been translated?"

He paused over the tripod, as though considering whether or not this information might ruin me as an accomplice, then said, "It has."

"What does it mean?"

He paused again, this time looking at Rikki, who was clearly dying for me to know, then gave an exasperated sigh. "It has several meanings. It is a very common glyph--you find it almost everywhere, including in some month names, some god names, and in a lot of the iconography. Nothing mysterious."

I waited.

"The most common meaning seems to be k'in, which refers to the sun," he added reluctantly. "Also, time in general. And k'in is the name for day. So you can see this is a very mundane sort of glyph, really."

Which is why, I thought, we just army-crawled thirty yards to get to this chamber. Which is why we are hiking around in the middle of the jungle at night and poor Rikki is probably going to die of pneumonia.

It's 1993 in Central America. Eva is a top war photographer who has taken an unusual assignment, aiding a taciturn Dutch Mayanist in his research in the great pyramids of Tikal. That's because her brother, an idealistic priest, has disappeared and no one seems interested in finding him. Undaunted and feeling qualified to explore rough areas because of her war-time experience, Eva uses this job as cover to search for her brother.

She is unwillingly sucked into her employer's family life as she works with his likable son and meets his wife. This just adds to the list of mysteries she can't solve as their relationships seem too complex for a normal family. Meanwhile, as Eva reads an old stack of her brother's letters, we learn of her own mysterious background, much of which she is only coming to terms with as her journey continues.

A lot of this book is infused with questions and conversation about faith. As Eva encounters revolutionaries and ordinary folk, the information she has picked up from her brother's own spiritual growth suddenly begins to be applicable to a lot of different situations in very interesting ways. All this is done without hitting the reader over the head with a religious hammer, which I appreciated.

I myself really enjoyed this book and finished it several months ago but I have not reviewed it until now because I wasn't sure how to describe it. The fascinating blend of treasure hunt and South American revolution made me read the story quickly, but I never felt worried about Eva's safety. In fact the book left me feeling almost detached from any emotional reaction to the storyline.

Perhaps the best comparison I can come up is to Silence by Shūsaku Endō. That is a book about danger, adventure, faith, and religion which is written in what an English teacher pal of mine described as "classical" ... meaning that they keep you detached from visceral reactions to physical events. I appreciated that very much when reading Silence.

There are some wonderful moments in the book that resonated with my own Catholic journey closer to God. Most of them were contained in Eva's brother's letters. Here's a sample:

It was Fr. Anthony, back in Chicago, who wrote to me that I should read the nouvelle theologians ... for the first time, things began to light up for me. I don't mean intellectually, though that too, but spiritually. If the entire cosmos is an outward and visible sign of God's love, then evil, no matter how destructive, does not win out in the end. It can't.

For the first time, I started to feel genuine joy in being alive. How could you not when everything around you, every rock and tree and human being, is in some way participating in a heavenly reality? Everything thrumming with the echoes of its own original name the name by which God spoke it into existence? The mystery of the world had always frightened me, but now I began to see this mystery as marvelously beautiful, even more beautiful than the loveliness of the created realm. I understood that the mystery of the world was connected to the invisible reality of which it was a sign ...

Huston's book is very much her own creation and I would be interested to see what she does fiction-wise in the future. I want to read A Land Without Sin again sometime now that I have the storyline in mind so that I can take in the spiritual elements enfolded throughout. I highly recommend it for an interesting story with lots of food for thought.

A note on the book itself: I loved the texture of the cover and highly approved of both the silver foil stamping on the cloth cover and the high quality of the paper inside. (Those who know me, know I do not give these accolades lightly.) I think this is a new publisher or imprint and they did a great job on the book itself.

[Nicki Elson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The atmosphere of this story is beautifully rich, as is the Maya history and lore. Despite the exotic location and the rising threat of war, A Land Without Sin moves at a leisurely pace. The story is more about Eva’s internal discoveries than the external circumstances. The reader is first immersed in the jungle and anthropological fieldwork, which appealed to the archaeological nerd in me. Huston’s vivid description puts the reader right into the dark tombs. Next we move on to the domestic setting at the anthropologist's home, where Eva goes through a transformation of sorts after overcoming her surprise at certain circumstances of her boss’ life. In the last section of the story, we at last close in on Eva’s brother. Though certain parts of the ending chapters felt a bit rushed, the story arrives at a satisfying conclusion.

Eva is an endearing character. Her wry observations of what’s going on around her are often very funny. Her cynicism felt authentic, and it was interesting to watch her closed heart open just enough to give the impression that her own faith journey is far from over. I did, however, feel some disconnect between Eva’s perception of her own character and what we actually see from her. She talks about having “a coldness inside that can scare people”, yet her actions and thoughts about others throughout the course of the story are quite compassionate, if not always confident. She talks of a proclivity for sexual promiscuity, yet she shows remarkable restraint in that regard over the several weeks during which this story takes place.

A Land Without Sin is well-written with a nice flow, and each character has a great deal of depth. The compelling plot is given even more texture with thought-provoking philosophies cleverly woven throughout the narrative.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t expect to read A Land Without Sin in a weekend, so be warned. This is a well-crafted and very compelling novel.

The storyline is pretty basic, when I think about it: main character Eva is trying to find her missing brother Stefan. It involves a journey through Central America, some flirting with politics at a level I'm pretty sure I just don't appreciate, and examination of faith and relationships.
There are some characters in this novel that I'd like to meet in real life, which is a testament to Huston's writing. I have vivid mental images of them: I can hear their distinct voices, see their faces, picture what they'd do.
I’ve been a fan of Huston’s nonfiction work for a while, and I was delighted that her fiction-telling is as good (or better?) than her other writing. I felt like I had traveled to Mexico and was crawling through the jungle, even as I related with the main character, Eva.

This is a book that keeps it real and, though the ending isn’t depressing, it’s also not a song-and-dance-happy-snappy-eyeroll affair. I must say, I appreciated that.

Highly recommended, and a book I’ll be recommending to my fiction book club, sharing with friends, and that has my name in the front cover (because yes, I want to reread it).

[Adele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paula Huston’s novel A Land Without Sin is a gripping spiritual journey set in Mexico in 1993 amid escalating civil conflict. Eva, a seasoned American photojournalist, treks through jungle caves and guerilla territories in search of her missing brother. Eva loves Stephen dearly, but she is unsettled by his deep Christian faith and by hints of family secrets he has withheld.

In a brilliant move, Huston gives her reader immediate access to Stephen by interspersing Eva’s first-person narration with letters he wrote before his disappearance. “What am I, a would-be monk, a lover of the desert fathers and contemplative prayer, doing in the middle of this hotbed?” he asks in one letter. While this is the question driving Eva’s mission, the story itself is a daring plunge into life’s central mysteries, including the nature of evil, the challenge of friendship, and the complex application of mercy in a broken world.

- from http://adelekonyndyk.wordpress.com/20...

[Kendall · Rating 5 out of 5]

One reviewer said of Paula Huston's novel A Land Without Sin, This is what a Christian novel should look like. Although I understand the sentiment. I'm not sure it really is a Christian novel. For sure it includes both Christians and atheists but it treats both with respect. There's profanity where real people are likely to use it and frank, though not graphic, concerns with sexuality. It's also about love in relationships; how it builds and how it can be damaged in spite of the best of intentions, yet spring back to grow and abide. It takes us through Central American rain forests and suggests ever so subtly the universality of our struggle for freedom and justice with the possibility it may have motivated ancient Mayans as well. It is a great book that deserves much more attention than it's gotten. I hope that changes.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this a compelling story about family, community, connections, good and evil, bravery and cowardice, and about religion in a strange way. One catholic priest in the story suggests that Christians dont understand the message of the Jesus story; that any God who would sacrafice his own son to benefit others is not a god of justice. I strongly reccomend this book. It was of the ones that I found difficult to put down and ended up reading over a couple of days.

[Joseph Schickel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eva and Stefan Kovic are the only children in a tragedy-riddled, blue-collar, Catholic immigrant family growing up on Chicago’s south side during the 1960’s. Both flee the nest at the first opportunity — with good reason. Both have strong, if fundamentally different, survival instincts. She wants to save her ass while he wants to save his soul. The two sibs are smart and intensely loyal to the other. Each considers the other, his or her only living family.

Separately, Stefan and Eva trot the globe during their twenties— she an adventure seeking photojournalist and he a soul seeking vagabond. They get degrees — she in art and he in theology. He becomes a Catholic priest eventually working in the religious and political hotbed of Central America in the 1990’s. She works as war correspondent for AP and others in places such as Cambodia and Afghanistan.

This page turning mystery begins in earnest when Father Stefan disappears from his Chiapas church with southern Mexico on the brink of revolution in 1993. Eva goes to find him. For cover, she gets a job as photographer for a Dutch archeologist specializing in Mayan ruins. Her search take her through Mayan pyramids and the Lacandon jungle.

First person narrator Eva is a beguiling character— brash, hard-bitten, and a touch oversexed — not that there’s anything wrong with that! She has learned some specialized survival skills sharing tents with CIA guys and other opportunists in war zones. Where to hide a knife or fake passport. How to handle military checkpoints. Her frank assessments of herself and others are insightful, hilarious, and utterly refreshing. She knows how duplicitous she, and others, can be.

Paula Huston’s elegant but not self-conscious prose makes reading this book a joy. The story conjures images from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory — and plumbs many of the same issues — evil, religious faith, the duplicity of the human heart, family relationships, friendship, war, race, violence, sex, and love — with comparable depth. The loyalty between the two siblings is inspiring.

Paul Elie’s provocative essay Has Fiction Lost it Faith? in the New York Times bemoaned what he saw as the dearth of contemporary fiction dealing with Christian religious faith in a meaningful way. Where are the descendants of Dostoyevsky, Greene, Tolkien, and Waugh? Paula Huston’s outstanding new book gives us a good answer.

[Allen Roth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fast paced always interesting adventure story that takes the reader on a trip through the jungles of South America with a side glimpse at Chicago. This character centered novel is always believable and entertaining. An added bonus is the locations the charters visit. Along the way, Huston does a superb job introducing the reader to the archaeological history of the lost Mayan cultures. Huston never fails to meet the challenge of keeping the reader engaged. As someone who has repeatedly been disappointed by modern novels I found A Land Without Sin a joy to read.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating novel set in Guatemala and Chiapas in the early nineties. In many ways it's a story of multiple "conversions." It's also influenced by the thought of René Girard.
Some aspects at the end of the novel were a little too predictable. I would have liked to see more development of the plot in San Cristobal and Lacondon as well as of the character of Stefan.
It is delightful - though not emotionally easy.

[Jonathan Hiskes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A world-weary war photographer heads to the Chiapan jungle to search for her missing brother, taking a job for cover as an assistant to an archaeologist of Mayan temples. The novel probes the cultural theories of Rene Girard (scapegoating innocent victims binds a culture together and acquires a veneer of sacred approval ...), revealing fascinating parallels between modern and ancient societies -- and not just the Mayans. "Ideas" novels can be risky. Here, the ambition pays off.

[J. Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful, wonderful book. It's a good story that could've been done ala Clive Cussler, et al, but wasn't. It's much more Graham Green -- thoughtful, literate, searching. I'll say more on my blog (holyordinary.blogspot.com) soon -- and Paula is going to do a guest post there, too.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't have anything more clever to say than the other reviewers here who've gone before me. I appreciated many of the same things in this book as they did. The characters are worth the time it takes to get to know them.

[Jeri · Rating 3 out of 5]

the story of a photojournalist, alienated from her Catholic upbringing, searching for her brother, a priest, in the jungles of southern Mexico in 1993, a time of rebellion in that area.
This is well written, a good story mixed with an exploration of religion, spirituality and evil.