
- Publisher: Signature Editions
- Available in: Paperback, Kindle
- ISBN: 1897109148
- Published: April 22, 2021
*Shortlisted for the Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher
A yellowed newspaper clipping about a recently released prisoner who saves a drowning boy triggers a wrenching journey into memory for middle-aged Ruth Callis, forcing her to confront the events of her past and, ultimately, her own act of forgiveness. Growing up in the far North, Ruth is attracted to the young missionaries working in her town and becomes increasingly involved in the activities of their evangelical fundamentalist church group. Much to the dismay of her long-suffering parents, she turns into an adolescent zealot. When Ruth moves south to go to university, life becomes less simple, answers less obvious. She becomes involved with Ian, an older man who is unemployed, alcoholic, obsessive, and increasingly volatile. What at first seems exotic becomes more and more frightening. The devastating relationship forces Ruth to re-examine her own twisted ideologies. A book of rare emotional honesty, Released reveals the selfishness of the so-called righteous, the intense cruelty of human beings, and their divine capability for real love.
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Reviews
Author says book is about forgiveness When talking about her first novel, Released, and its protagonist, Ruth Callis, author Margaret Macpherson makes one thing clear: when she creates fiction; the characters come from her imagination. “The joy of fiction is using the writer’s imagination. This is my character’s life. Not my life. I created Ruth, and she tells her story,” she says. “I never felt like I was carrying around the weight of the world, telling Ruth’s story.”
“I get up ad make sandwiches for lunch; then I enter her world. I engage and disengage. I have to.” Even though Macpherson goes beyond writing what she knows, she enjoys writing what she knows, she enjoys writing about where she’s been. Treks through Bermuda, Central America, Mexico, Europe, and Australia all left a mark on Released. “The book is all over the map: the East Coast, the Noth, Sudbury, Australia. And I really enjoyed writing about Yellowknife. Finding settings was the easy part.” The award-winning author says that love, betrayal, and redemption are fundamental to all human characters. But Released emphasizes the element of forgiveness.
“To come to full humanity is to forgive. Anger doesn’t get
“Margaret writes ” We are all part of the great mystery”. For me, this novel draws us deep into the mysteries of the sacred places of the heart where we alone know who we are, where we’ve been, the place where extreme joy and massive hurt coexist to fuel our existence. Face to face with her inner place the main character finds both strength and weakness in who she is. She experiences what truth can do, the mysterious inner resource that resides in each of us for finding freedom through forgiveness.
A marvelous read for a first novel. It engages you from page 1 and you can’t put it down.
Anyone of any age can relate to this story. We have all taken the wrong paths from time to time, we have all suffered inner turmoil from unforgiveness but have we all found the inner path to unleashing forgiveness from our spirit?”