Mercy Waithira reviews Francine Rivers’ The Last Sin Eater.

Francine Rivers has once again created a masterpiece. Set in the Appalachian Mountains during the 19th century, the story is weaved along an old Scottish and Welsh folk tradition of ‘sin eaters’; men chosen to bear the sins and damnations of the departed before they were laid to rest and passed over into the afterlife. It is a well thought out novel laid out in old simplistic but captivating language, garnished with native Acottish and Welsh English. Creatively, Francine manages to draw out the reader from reality and immerses him deep into the fictitious, mystical and enchanting pages of the story that is so deeply absorbing, each page filled with much enigma and suspense holding one’s interest to the very end.

This novel is not only a magnificent intertwine of fiction and biblical truth but also an inspiration of faith. it clearly brings out the main themes of sin, rejection and condemnation and those of forgiveness and grace, clearly revealing the lost and sinful nature of man and his great need for salvation. In a very entertaining, moving and even humorous manner Francine has clearly and directly presented the gospel pointing us to Jesus as our only saving grace and hope for redemption, an amazing way of presenting the gospel by drawing an analogy of Jesus Christ and the sin eater and showing that ultimately Jesus is the only ‘sin eater’, the only one who can and has taken upon Himself the sin of the world.

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