Brendan: A Novel

Acclaimed author, Frederick Buechner, interweaves history and legend to re-create the life of a complex man of faith fifteen hundred years ago. Winner of the 1987 Christianity and Literature Book Award for Belles-Lettres.

This novel about the life of the sixth century Irish saint known as St. Brendan the Navigator — monk, abbot, sailor, ship-builder, and explorer — is mostly narrated by his travelling companion, Finn. Forever seeking to be closer to God, Brendan undertakes a quest to the earthly Paradise — Tir na nÓg, The Land of the Young. His two sea voyages include adventures and epiphanies, and his spiritual struggles are more difficult even than his arduous journeys. Though he came to be revered as a saint, to his final breath, he considered himself a “black-hearted sinner.” His exuberant story is filled with ribald humor, piercing sorrows, and miraculous moments. As the Washington Post said, “[It] ‘proves the power of faith to lift us up, to hold us straight, to send us on again.’”