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Someone asked Andrew Peterson the other day for a few recommended works of fiction. He offered four suggestions. I’ve listed them below, in chronological order, with some additional details. All are written by novelists who are Christians from varying traditions.


Walter Wangerin Jr., The Book of the Dun Cow

Written in 1978

Won the 1980 National Book Award and The New York Times Best Children’s Book of the Year.

“A book that nearly defies categorization—equal parts Watership Down, Lord of the Rings, Animal Farm . . . and The Canterbury Tales. It’s the story of Chauntecleer the rooster, Lord of all he surveys, until the twisted and evil Cockatrice sets his eye and his armies upon the land. In the end Chaunticleer and his farmland subjects must stand together in the face of the destruction of the earth and the wakening of Wyrm. It’s a story that’s both intimate and epic, horrifying and humorous, dreadful and hopeful. I’ve never read anything else quite like it. Certainly one of my top 10 favorite books of all time. Has to be read to be believed.”

—Pete Peterson


Frederick Buechner, Godric

Written in 1981

Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize

“In the extraordinary figure of Godric, both stubborn outsider and true child of God, both worldly and unworldly, Frederick Buechner has found an ideal means of exploring the nature of spirituality. Godric is a living battleground where God fights it out with the world, the Flesh, and the Devil.”

London Times Literary Supplement


Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow

Written in 2000

“One of our favorite books, by one of America’s finest writers. If you’ve never read anything by Wendell Berry, this is as good a place to start as any. He’s a poet, essayist, novelist, and farmer, skilled and well-respected at each. This book is part of the reason I forsook the suburbs and moved with my family to the Warren—not to escape community, but to enter into a deeper one.”

—Andrew Peterson


Leif Enger, Peace Like a River

Written in 2001

Amazon.com’s Book of the Year

John Piper wrote in his recommendation of the book:

There’s faith in it, but not like your usual faith. More strange, like the Bible. . . .

What do I make of it? Wrong question.

What is it making of me?

More alive to everything true, I hope. More steady in the wind. More hopeful. Less anxious. Eager for Christ to show up.

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