Prologue Summary

This novel interweaves several narrative lines in a story that travels through some of the darkest tunnels of the human experience but at the end, offers a glimpse of light. As questions the validity of God and faith and portrays the corruptive power of sex and desire, the work also explores the nature and power of evil, the true nature and meaning of justice, and the nature of redemption.

Young Arvin joins his father Willard at his regular evening prayer, both seated on an oak log in a clearing in the woods. As Willard prays, Arvin reflects on how being viewed as an outsider has led leads to him being repeatedly bullied, and on how his father told him to stand up for himself. Meanwhile, two hunters happen by, and one of them makes crude remarks about Arvin's attractive mother Charlotte who, Arvin...