The shack

Title: The Shack

Author: William P. Young

Publishing house: Hachette Book Group USA, Hodder & Stoughton

Place of publication: Canada

Date of publication: February 2007

Genre: Christian literature

Story setting (when and where the story develops): There are several scenarios in this book: first it tells us about the place where he lives which is a pleasant place, but at the time it was told it was in winter. Then it takes us to a forest with a huge lake and finally to a shack in the middle of nowhere, near the forest where they went.

BRIEF description of the story or plot: A family trip turns to tragedy when Mack's youngest daughter Missy disappears. After hours of searching, they find evidence that the daughter was brutally murdered in an abandoned shack in Oregon, the father will react by rebelling against God.

After four years, Mack, still full of sadness, receives a suspicious letter, apparently from God, which asks him to meet Him at the cabin where his daughter died.

Despite the apparent absurdity of the situation, he goes to the appointment and has a peculiar encounter with a man and two women, personifications of God, Christ and the Holy Spirit, who take him on a journey that helps him to heal that scar.

What I liked this book: The book speaks of the encounter between a man who believes in God in his own way, with much leeway. His wife instead has a much closer faith relationship with God. He feels let down by God after his little girl lost her life at the hands of a kidnapper. The author of this book, says that there is nothing harder than losing someone you love and that it is the greatest lesson in learning to love God.

One of the strongest parts was when he meets a girl, who tells him that now because he judges God, he has to make a difficult the decision, which makes him realized that God is love and that he suffers as much as we do.

To whom or why you recommend it: I think it's a book for people who are feeling some kind of hurt from the loss of a loved one or who are going through a difficult time. And then by reading it he/she will realize the power of God in one's life, that we should not hold on to pain forever. Of course, to read it well, one must believe in God even if it is vaguely, and I assure that in the end he/she will want to seek God in another way.

Written by José Antonio Acosta Castillo