Book Review: Strangers and Sojourners

It’s easy to assume a simple life is also a boring life and even fear the prospect of this reality. The novel Strangers and Sojourners by Michael O’Brien is about a young woman from England named Anne who loses her mother at a young age.  The novel demonstrates to the reader that simplicity is beautiful and does not necessarily result in boredom. Anne finds work as a nurse caring for patients wounded by the war and falls in love with a man who dies soon after. Anne is confused and needs to regroup so she takes a teaching job in a small town in Canada called Swiftcreek. Her first year there she is seemingly miserable, but she later spots her future husband in an awkward encounter with a man among a group of horses whom she calls a Centaur.

The town becomes overtaken by a flu epidemic and as a result of several circumstances she finds herself the only person able enough to care for the Centaur. During the time she spends with the Centaur, named Stephen, she found herself falling in love with him despite the dramatic differences between the two of them. Eventually after some time they decide to get married and the majority of the novel follows these two different individuals united in the Sacrament of Marriage. Stephen is a devout Catholic, but Anne is still wrestling with her faith and continues to throughout the novel.

The novel is written through Anne’s point of view and even includes some diary entries from her which allow us to see even more into the depths of her soul. Throughout the novel Anne wrestles with her satisfaction of the families’ simple life in Canada away from the city limits of Swiftcreek. As she lives and begins to raise her three children, she encounters questions in her own heart about who God is and whether He exists. This question in her heart leads to many other inquiries about truth, hope, despair, and love.

What struck me most about this novel was that Anne is constantly wrestling with big questions and talking to her children and grandkids about what comes up. Her family lives in rural Canada where they have few neighbors and live very simply but her deep and spiritual ponderings make her life truly come alive. This life she brings to her family and her community despite the external simplicity is what makes this novel a beautiful read. Anne loves her husband and her children deeply, but the wrestling within her heart makes her seem distant and unhappy in moments throughout the novel. On the outside her life looks mundane and pointless but she chooses vulnerability with God and others bringing deep value to her life. There was never a moment throughout the novel where I felt unsatisfied or bored despite the simplicity of the story.

Like the Blessed Mother who is constantly pondering things in her heart we are also called to do so and share with those around us. The beauty and value of our lives comes from our soul and the activity of God happening within. Simplicity is beautiful and necessary, but it can become a source of despair or boredom if we become complacent. God is constantly working in us and in the souls of others, this is the beauty of the human experience. This novel gave me permission to see the world with depth and to desire to plummet the profundity of my own heart with those I love. C. S. Lewis says, “to love at all is to be vulnerable” and love brings value to our lives because God is love.