An engaging fanfic featuring Castiel as a mysterious faith healer that the brothers hope can cure Sam of his demon corruption. The author voices Dean to perfection.

I have read and reviewed a couple of the author’s books in the past and enjoyed them, and I was intrigued by this book when it came out, but due to my personal circumstances (my father suffered from cancer and died around the time of its publication) I didn’t feel I was in the best frame of mind for it. Now that it has been published as part of The Fraud and Miracle Trilogy, I was very pleased to receive a paperback copy and finally get to read it.

The story is deceptively simple. A woman suffering from terminal pancreatic cancer, desperate, follows the advice of her personal assistant and approaches a healer, Arpan. I am not sure if he would call himself a “faith” healer, but he insists that those he treats should be totally invested in the process, including transferring 50% of their assets to his account. Although he states all that money goes to charity, it caused suspicion and scandal years back, and he has been keeping a low profile ever since. After much insistence and a different deal, he agrees to treat Erica, who also has secrets of her own. There are strange conspiracies surrounding Arpan and his healing process but Erica’s life is changed forever. Things are not as they seem, of course.

The story is written in the third person from Erica’s point of view, and we get to share in her doubts, suspicions, paranoia, hope, and also to experience the healing with her. The book transmits a sense of claustrophobia, and although there are treks around the Welsh countryside and later we move to a different country, most of the story takes place within Arpan’s tent, and there are only a few main characters (mostly Erica (Maria), Arpan (Amesh), and Anuj) with some secondary characters that we don’t get to know very well (Hilda, Julia, Gunnar). There are no lengthy descriptions of settings or of the appearance of the characters, because we follow the point of view of a woman totally preoccupied with her health and her mortality, and that makes her not the most reliable of narrators. She describes the physical and mental effects that the illness and the healing process have on her, and we are also privy to her suspicions and doubts. The book offers fascinating psychological insights into how much our “rational” point of view can change when our life is at stake, and it is impossible to read it and not wonder what we would do in Erica’s place.

I kept thinking that the story, which relies heavily on dialogue (both between characters and also internal dialogue), would make a great play, and its intensity would be well suited to the stage. Although most of the characters are not sympathetic, to begin with, their humanity and the big questions they are forced to deal with make them intriguing and worthy subjects of our observations.

The ending brings a great twist to the story. Although I think most readers will have been suspicious and on alert due to the secrets, false information, continuous doubts, and different versions of the truth on offer, the actual ending will make them question everything and re-evaluate the story in a different light. And, considering the nature of the subject it deals with, that is a great achievement.

I recommend it to those who enjoy stories that make them think, to readers who are not searching for cheap thrills and prefer a psychologically astute book and especially to those who want to feel personally invested in the stories they read. I look forward to the rest of the books in the trilogy.

 

When advertising executive Erica Whittaker is diagnosed with terminal cancer, western medicine fails her. The only hope left for her to survive is controversial healer Arpan. She locates the man whose touch could heal her but finds he has retired from the limelight and refuses to treat her. Erica, consumed by stage four pancreatic cancer, is desperate and desperate people are no longer logical nor are they willing to take no for an answer. Arpan has retired for good reasons. casting more than the shadow of a doubt over his abilities. So begins a journey that will challenge them both as the past threatens to catch up with him as much as with her. Can he really heal her? Can she trust him with her life? And will they both achieve what they set out to do before running out of time?

 

Review 4*

 

This is an intriguing psychological/medical thriller. I really enjoyed it!

 

I received a complimentary gift copy of this book in audio format from the author with no expectation of a positive review. This is my honest opinion.

 

This audiobook is narrated by Georgina Tate. She has a clear reading voice. Unfortunately, I was not keen on her reading style. She read the story in a jerky fashion in my opinion, taking unnecessary breaths in the middle of a sentence where no comma should be, and her pacing was a little too slow for my taste. She also did not modulate her voice or change her tone often, which made some sections rather monotonous. She also didn't even attempt to give the characters different tones or accents. This, in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, as not many people can do accents. Nevertheless, it made me feel a little bored at times and I considered switching over to a different story. However, I persevered right until the end.

 

Erica Whittaker is an interesting character. She is a woman who has been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. After a course of chemo that leaves her feeling extremely ill, she turns in desperation to a faith healer called Arpan, who has retired to the wilds of Wales, in an attempt to cure it.

 

I found myself intrigued with the storyline, which is told through the eyes of Erica. I also found some of the dialogue a bit clunky and repetitive, especially in the beginning where Erica first meets Arpan and tries to convince him to heal her. Arpan is an interesting character. He has retired from the limelight as a healer after a healing went wrong and his client died, which created a media circus. He is extremely reluctant to heal Erica and it's not until later in the story that one discovers the reason why. He also has an apprentice called Anuge (sorry, not sure of spelling). What got me curious about this situation is that if he's not practicing healing, why did he have an apprentice? Anyway, as the story unfolded, the mystery and suspense surrounding Arpan's apparent retirement comes to light when a drug company comes calling. I must admit there are several twists to this story that I didn't see coming, though I did have suspicions about a few things that I deduced correctly when they were revealed. The ending, however, left me feeling with a blend of surprise and disgust at how an innocent person can have their life ruined by either a potentially deadly mistake or a deliberate scam. The author has left the ending a little vague so a reader can make their own conclusion on this point.

 

Christoph Fischer is a relatively new author to me in that I've only read some of his short stories in an anthology he contributed to. Nevertheless, I love his writing style and, if I had read this book rather than listened to it, I think I would have enjoyed it better flow-wise. I would definitely read more of his books in the future.

 

Although there are no scenes of a sexual nature, violence or profane language, I do not recommend this book to younger readers due to the dark subject matter. I do, however, highly recommend this book if you love psychological or medical thrillers. - Lynn Worton

 

bookshelves: britain-ireland, autumn-2010, play-dramatisation, published-1979, slit-yer-wrists-gloomy

 

BBC blurb - A magisterial study of the torments of creative genius and the healing power of love. In one of the great classic plays in the modern Irish canon, a faith healer returns to his native Ireland to a potentially terrible fate. When fortune smiles, Frances Hardy's gifts are prodigious. Otherwise his devoted wife, Grace, can only watch on as he wages a drunken 'feud between himself and his talent'. Grace has given up a privileged background and a career in law to join Frank and his engaging wide-boy manager Teddy, touring remote corners of Scotland and Wales in a battered van. But now Frank senses that a return to his native land may be the only way to restore his waning powers. And so the fateful crossing is made, in a homecoming that will change the lives of all three forever. The play, now considered a modern masterpiece and a formative influence on subsequent Irish writing (its monologue structure prefigures Conor Mc Pherson's The Weir, and Port Authority among other) ran to only twenty performances in its New York in 1979 . It was with the 1994 production and Donal Mc Cann as the eponymous healer - alongside Judy Geeson and Ron Cook - that the play truly made its mark on Broadway, Dublin, and London West End audiences, and worldwide. A recent production originating at the Gate Theatre with Ralph Fiennes in the role won Ian Mc Diarmid a Tony for best supporting actor. This new production for radio features Owen Roe, who performed the title role in Dublin and Edinburgh last year. Newcomers to the play are Lia Williams as Grace and Phil Daniels as Teddy. PHIL DANIELS became famous at a young age with the cult film Quadrophenia, subsequently with Blur in their single Parklife and lately has been television detective DCS Frank Paterson and Inspector Hardcastle in 'Poirot 'The Clocks' and is familiar as a regular in Eastenders.LIA WILLIAMS, apart from many television and film roles, has appeared on the West End in numerous plays, including David Mamet's Oleanna directed by Harold Pinter, KIng Lear and As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Eccentricities Of A Nightingale, and Mappa Mundi at the Royal National Theatre.