Review: WONDERS OF A GODLESS WORLD – Andrew McGahan

In Wonders of a Godless World former Miles Franklin winner Andrew McGahan has written what is essentially a fable, albeit a fable of planetary scope and awe-inspiring grandeur. At the heart of this expansive novel lies a beguilingly simple message: life is all the more precious because it is brief.

It is not an original theme by any means: the contemplation of our own mortality has ever been a central concern of literature, from Achiles to modern crime thrillers, from the sublime poetry of John Keats to our popular fascination with vampires. The idea of dignity and the achievement of  humanity in death has always preoccupied our imagination. The understanding that we need to accept that one day we will die is often best explored when we entertain the possibility of life without death and examine the consequences of immortality. Wonders of a Godless World, unfolding majestically within the unlikely walls of a remote insane asylum, charts the dehumanising effect of immortality with exquisite precision.

Set on a unnamed volcanic island, Wonders of a Godless World is told from the perspective of an orphan, retarded from birth and adopted by the hospital in which her mother died. She earns her keep by cleaning and doing odd jobs around the wards, spending much of her time amongst the island’s benignly insane. The arrival of a comatose foreigner disrupts the relative peace of the hospital as the patients begin to behave strangely to the foreigner’s presence and the Orphan soon discovers she can communicate telepathically with the mysterious newcomer.

Leaving their physical bodies behind, the foreigner introduces the Orphan to the natural wonders of the world beyond her tiny island home and tells her his own incredible history. He also awakens the Orphan to her own extraordinary powers and encourages her to practice and develop them, despite the unintended consequences for their fellow residents.

Delving deep into the earth sciences and beautifully exploring the seemingly miraculous connection between the planet and the life it sustains, Wonders of a Godless World is a heady, exhilarating story and a brilliant dissection of what makes us, and keeps us, human.