Mountain Plains Press

The first time she’d come here, Father had taken her up the hill and showed her the tree, the ocean, the sky, and the woods around her.

“I came here as a boy, Astrid, whenever things weighed on my mind,” Father’d said with a sober smile. His gave left the rolling waves and rested on her. He held her tight. “Now I’m showing you. And remember that, no matter what, I’ll always be here for you. Your mother, Sven, and I will never leave you.”

That was the first time, and this was the last.

Astrid Arnoldsdatter wasn’t interested in Christianity–that is, until her brother Sven returns from a raid and tells of his encounter with a Christian monk. Fearing they’d incur the Norse gods’ wrath, Astrid tries to put the interest out of mind and urges Sven to do the same.

So when Danes raid her village, Astrid is conscience-stricken, blaming herself and believing she’d been cursed and forsaken by the gods. Alone, she flees to a nearby island where opposition, attacks, and illness repeatedly drive her to call on the Christian God because, why waste time calling on gods who’d forsaken her? Eventually, she learns to rely on her newfound faith in God. But when the chance comes to silence her conscience by avenging her family, she overlooks an important characteristic of that faith: forgiveness.

Out of the Dark is a story of forgiveness, faith, love, and finding belonging, geared towards Christian teenagers 8th grade and above, but it is my hope that it is a people book, a story that will appeal to all audiences.