cover image Our Father

Our Father

Bernice Rubens. Delacorte Press, $16.95 (212pp) ISBN 978-0-385-29593-2

For Veronica Smiles, Our Father who art in heaven also resides in the Sahara desert, London suburbs and Victoria Station, among other unexpected locations. She invites Him to a party and frets over introductions. ""Should she say, `This is God, I'd like you to meet so-and-so?' Or `This is our Lord?' Or `The Almighty?' . . . . Perhaps she should just call him Fred, a cosy name that would unnerve nobody. . . .'' (He doesn't show up until after the last guest has left anyway.) Veronica, who conducts a tepid romance with a sterile wine merchant she has met on a train despite the torch she carries for God, is an inspired creation. In her 14th novel, Rubens (The Elected Member) creates an edgy tension that builds as Veronica's determination to discover the awful truths of her past begins to drive her mad. Or is it her craziness that propels her toward those horrifying revelations? Or is it her past that has sent her around the bend from the beginning? This provocative novel is a stunning portrait of a woman wobbling on the fine line between slightly eccentric normalcy and a sojourn in her own unique version of hell. (November 13)