famous short stories about redemption

Summaries, Analysis & Lists

Redemption Stories: Short Stories About Redemption

These stories about redemption have characters who achieve redemption, who have that possibility, or who are making an attempt at redemption.

Stories About Redemption

“sticks” by george saunders.

A father has a pole in his yard that he dresses according to the occasion. He’s a stingy man and his family lives on edge. ( Summary & Analysis )

This is the second story in the preview of  Tenth of December: Stories .

“The Spinoza of Market Street” by Isaac Bashevis Singer

Dr. Fichelson, a philosopher, lives by the rationalist teachings of Spinoza. He lives on a small income after being fired from his post as librarian at a synagogue, due to his views, which contradict Jewish doctrine.

Some of this story can be read in the preview of  The Spinoza of Market Street and Other Stories .

“Another Time” by Edna O’Brien

Nelly, feeling a great mental strain, leaves London for a seaside resort. She hopes to experience some sort of redemption. The reality of the trip soon sets in—a shabby hotel with a disappointing view, and people she’d like to avoid.

“The Bishop’s Silver” by Victor Hugo

While in town running errands, Madame Magloire, the housekeeper, hears about a vagabond who’s been spotted and is probably up to no good. She tells the bishop but he seems unconcerned. There’s  a loud knock at the door. A tired but fierce looking man enters. Madame Magloire and Mademoiselle Baptistine, the bishop’s sister, are frightened. The man is a convict, released only four days ago. He can’t find an inn that will take him due to his past. He’s looking for a place to stay the night.

This story is an excerpt from the novel  Les Misérables. 

“Redemption” by John Gardner

Young Jack Hawthorn accidentally runs over and kills his brother with a tractor and cultipacker (a machine that crushes and smooths the ground) on their farm. Each member of the family tries to come to terms with the death.

“The Legend of the Christmas Rose” by Selma Lagerlöf

The Robber family lives in a cave in the Göinge forest. The father is an outlaw and can’t go in to the village, so he robs travelers. The mother begs in the village with the five children. The people give, fearing repercussions if they refuse. On one trip, she calls at the monks’ cloister. She walks through their garden, and finds it pretty, but it doesn’t compare to another garden she knows of. She tells Abbot Hans and his assistant about it.

“The Magic Barrel” by Bernard Malamud

Leo Finkle, studying to be a rabbi, hears that being married would improve his job prospects. He consults a matchmaker, but is concerned about the commercial nature of the venture and wonders whether love plays any part in it. He has an important realization about himself during the matchmaking process.

Read “The Magic Barrel”

“The No-Guitar Blues” by Gary Soto

Fausto wants a guitar more than anything. When he finds a lost dog, he is sure there will be reward money that he can use for a guitar, especially if he embellishes the story.

Read “The No-Guitar Blues”

I’ll keep adding stories about redemption as I find more.

100 Best Redemption Books of All Time

We've researched and ranked the best redemption books in the world, based on recommendations from world experts, sales data, and millions of reader ratings. Learn more

The Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini and Simon & Schuster Audi | 5.00

James Altucher Excellent novel. (Source)

Vanessa Keng I've always loved fiction - mainly crime and legal thrillers, but there's something wonderful about reading a completely different style of writing from what I'm used to. I found myself absorbed in the narrative of guilt and love in The Kite Runner, and The Curious Incident told me a story from a completely different perspective. (Source)

Magda Marcu I’m currently reading “The Kite Runner”. I never have expectations from books, I let them surprise me as I get into the story. Learning about characteristics of different cultures, in this case the Afghan one, it’s one aspect I am interested in. (Source)

See more recommendations for this book...

Crime and Punishment

A Russian Realistic Novel

Fyodor Dostoyevsky | 4.80

Esther Perel You can reread the Russians. They are timeless. (Source)

Irvine Welsh It is not a crime book in the way that we understand crime fiction today. Instead it is like an existential psychological thriller. (Source)

Ben Domenech @SohrabAhmari @li88yinc @jgcrum @BlueBoxDave @InezFeltscher @JarrettStepman Maybe the best book ever written. (Source)

Redemption (Redemption, #1)

Karen Kingsbury, Gary Smalley | 4.67

Redeeming Love

Francine Rivers | 4.58

A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption

Laura Hillenbrand | 4.54

In her long-awaited new book, Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in Seabiscuit . Telling an unforgettable story of a man's journey into extremity, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he'd been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

A Story of Justice and Redemption

1, 160 | 4.51

Richard Branson Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. (Source)

Chris Sacca Proud that @crystale and I could help fund the making of a film about one of our heroes, Bryan Stevenson. If you’ve read the book, then you know how powerful this film is. #JustMercy https://t.co/vNfXK4Imwr (Source)

Howard Schultz Perhaps one of the most powerful and important stories of our time. (Source)

A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens | 4.48

Les Misérables

Victor Hugo, Isabel F. Hapgood, et al. | 4.47

David Bellos Because it’s so huge and so capacious and contains so many different stories and takes on the world, you can make anything out of Les Misérables. (Source)

Christian B Miller Vividly illustrates two ideas about character. The first is that our characters can change over time, the second is that role models can be powerful sources of character change. (Source)

A Tale of Two Cities

Charles Dickens | 4.45

Amelia Boone Remains one my favorites to this day. (Source)

Antonio Villaraigosa As mayor of a large metropolis, the living conditions of our residents are always present in my mind. Every decision I make, I try to evaluate if it will help improve the quality of life of every Angeleno. But Dickens really dissects both the aristocrats and the revolutionaries, to show that change is never easy. As progressives, we value government’s role and power to improve our cities and... (Source)

May Witwit I started a paper about the historical reality in this book. And as I studied it more deeply I got depressed because the things that were happening were similar to Iraq. How the mob could be turned against people by devious minds. They just killed people without even knowing them. The people who were killed were probably very good people, you never know. You just can’t kill haphazardly, heads... (Source)

Charlotte Brontë, Michael Mason | 4.39

Orphaned as a child, Jane has felt an outcast her whole young life. Her courage is tested once again when she arrives at Thornfield Hall, where she has been hired by the brooding, proud Edward Rochester to care for his ward Adèle. Jane finds herself drawn to his troubled yet kind spirit. She falls in love. Hard.

But there is a terrifying secret inside the gloomy, forbidding Thornfield Hall. Is Rochester hiding from Jane? Will Jane be left heartbroken and exiled once again?

John Sutherland There is an interesting debate … that the real heroine of Jane Eyre is not the plain little governess but the mad woman in the attic, Bertha Mason (Source)

Tracy Chevalier The idea of marriage is that two people are going to become one, but here you know—because of the mad woman in the attic—that it’s one thing about to be split in two. (Source)

Audrey Penn My next one is Jane Eyre. She was orphaned and sent to a very rich aunt, who had her own very selfish children. Jane Eyre was not the perfect child and she was sent to live in a girls’ school. She made one friend, but unfortunately the little girl died, so she had to toughen up. She grew up there and learned everything she needed to know about teaching. She was a very good artist, she played a... (Source)

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The Storyteller

Jodi Picoult | 4.38

Reunion (Redemption, #5)

Karen Kingsbury, Gary Smalley | 4.37

Rejoice (Redemption, #4)

Karen Kingsbury and Gary Smalley | 4.36

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (Harold Fry, #1)

Rachel Joyce | 4.36

Gregory David Roberts | 4.35

Josh Waitzkin One of the most beautiful novels I found. Just a ecstatically beautiful book. (Source)

Irina Marinescu I am always eager to learn how people think and form friendships, how they deal with life's challenges and still remain human. This book delivers that and even more! Shantaram takes you on an incredible journey and you return a changed person. (Source)

To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee, Sissy Spacek, et al | 4.34

Eric Berkowitz The case is about racism, but it’s also about white sexual fear of the black man, and the failed effort of white America to stop intermixing. I think the notion of the scary black man still permeates the American justice system today. I don’t think To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the greatest pieces of literature ever, but it is a very good window into the ingrained sexual fear that permeated at... (Source)

Scott Turow It’s dated in many ways; it’s extremely sentimental. But it’s beautifully done – you can’t take a thing away from it. (Source)

David Heinemeier Hansson Really liking this one so far. I’m sure a lot of people here probably read it in high school or whatever, but it wasn’t on the Danish curriculum, so here I am! (Source)

Return (Redemption, #3)

Karen Kingsbury, Gary Smalley | 4.34

Remember (Redemption, #2)

Karen Kingsbury, Gary Smalley | 4.32

All the Light We Cannot See

Anthony Doerr | 4.30

Jason Goldman All The Light We Cannot See is the best book I've read in a while. I tend to speed read and here I savored every word; the writing is just effortlessly beautiful. I hope it's made it onto high school WWII syllabi by now. (Source)

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1)

C. S. Lewis, Kenneth Branagh, et al | 4.29

Chris Anderson As a child, they exploded my imagination. (Source)

Lev Grossman You win some Turkish delight. Everyone knows Lewis’s Narnia books are a foundational work of the modern fantastic. But I don’t think Lewis gets enough credit for his craft as a writer. Those books are deceptively simple. Look at the way he constructed the opening of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He puts the shadows of the war in the background, the excitement of a new house in the country... (Source)

Kathryn Stockett | 4.28

Twin Mummy And Daddy I love a good book and The Help is exactly that! In fact it’s an amazing book! Read my review over on the blog today! https://t.co/efaf9aRGOK #TheHelp #KathrynStockett #bookreview #bookblogger #mummybloggers #daddybloggers #pbloggers #mbloggers @UKpbloggers @UKBloggers1 #books (Source)

Stephen King | 4.28

Harry Khachatrian @redsteeze great book though (Source)

R. J. Palacio | 4.25

The Brothers Karamazov

Fyodor Dostoevsky, Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky | 4.25

Randall Stephenson Favorite book: The Brothers Karamazov. (Source)

Kenan Malik Dostoevsky was a devout Christian and The Brothers Karamazov, his last and possibly greatest novel, was a heartfelt plea for the necessity of faith. The phrase If God does not exist, everything is permitted is often attributed to Dostoevsky. He actually never wrote that, but the sentiment certainly runs through much of his work, and most especially through The Brothers Karamazov. (Source)

Rachel Kushner This book taught me something I knew on a much deeper level but did not have the language or the reasoning to state: that innocence is something very durable and interior, and also evanescent. (Source)

Lover Awakened (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #3)

J.R. Ward | 4.22

Pride and Prejudice

Jane Auste | 4.22

Meg Rosoff It’s a coming-of-age story, because she throws aside her prejudices but also sees the house and realises that she could be quite comfortable and maybe realises how important that is. (Source)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7)

J. K. Rowling, Mary GrandPré | 4.22

The Legendary Wolf

Ammar Habib | 4.21

Victor Hugo, Charles E. Wilbour, et al. | 4.21

The Count of Monte Cristo

Alexandre Dumas père, Robin Buss | 4.21

Ryan Holiday I thought I’d read this book before but clearly they gave me some sort of children’s version. Because the one I’d read as a kid wasn’t a 1,200 page epic of some of the most brilliant, beautiful and complicated storytelling ever put to paper. What a book! When I typed out my notes (and quotes) after finishing this book, it ran some 3,000 words. I was riveted from cover to cover. I enjoyed all the... (Source)

Sol Orwell I have to go with Count of Monte Cristo. An unparalleled revenge story. (Source)

Chris Kutarna The Count of Monte Cristo it is about revenge and the cost of revenge. Being careful what you wish for. The other theme is about riches and wealth and what is truly valuable. (Source)

The Seventh Most Important Thing

Shelley Pearsall | 4.20

An Echo in the Darkness (Mark of the Lion, #2)

Francine River | 4.18

The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings, #3)

J. R. R. Tolkien, Rob Inglis, et al | 4.18

Vain (The Seven Deadly, #1)

Fisher Ameli | 4.18

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

Gail Honeyman | 4.16

Twinkle Khanna Eleanor is awkward, funny, an alcoholic and clearly not fine. A great book for someone who wants to get over a reading slump. Loved it! #mustread #eleanoroliphantiscompletelyfine #TweakIt https://t.co/fVQu4sYhSi (Source)

The Gargoyle

Andrew Davidson | 4.16

The Last Sin Eater

Francine Rivers | 4.16

The Outsiders

S. E. Hinton | 4.16

I'll Give You the Sun

Jandy Nelson | 4.15

Deep Redemption (Hades Hangmen, #4)

Tillie Col | 4.15

Same Kind of Different as Me

A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together

Ron Hall, Denver Moore, Lynn Vincent | 4.15

Lord of Scoundrels (Scoundrels, #3)

Loretta Chase | 4.15

Eloisa James The past is the ultimate escape: we dream ourselves backward, into a time when women wore fabulously interesting and sensual clothing and, perhaps more importantly, to a time when relationships between men and women were highly structured. Hooking up is a far more confusing process than going to a debutante ball. (Source)

Sweet Hope (Sweet Home, #3; Carillo Boys, #2)

Tillie Cole | 4.14

The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1)

Carlos Ruiz Zafon and Lucia Grave | 4.13

Poet Of The Wrong Generation

Lonnie Ostro | 4.13

Different Seasons

Stephen King | 4.13

A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2)

Sarah J. Maa | 4.12

Broken (Redemption, #1)

Jamihla N. Young | 4.11

The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1)

Brandon Sanderson | 4.11

Rock Chick Reawakening (Rock Chick, #0.5; 1001 Dark Nights #52)

Kristen Ashley | 4.10

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Taylor Jenkins Reid | 4.10

Jacqui Pretty When it comes to fiction, there are so many to choose from! Some books I've loved in the past year include The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. (Source)

Sahil Lavingia @alexbdebrie best book i've read recently is The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. (Source)

Redemption (Amos Decker, #5)

David Baldacci | 4.10

Vicious (Sinners of Saint, #1)

L.J. Shen | 4.10

Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4)

Sarah J. Maas | 4.10

Born of Legend (The League

Nemesis Rising #9)

Sherrilyn Kenyon | 4.09

Lover Avenged (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #7)

J.R. Ward | 4.09

Devil in Winter (Wallflowers, #3)

Lisa Kleypas | 4.09

The Language of Flowers

Vanessa Diffenbaugh | 4.09

Writing My Wrongs

Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison

Shaka Senghor | 4.08

Ben Horowitz The memoir of a man who went to prison for 19 years, then became an author and MIT fellow. (Source)

David Coogan Shaka Senghor grew up in the 80s and 90s. He was a young man when the crack epidemic took the country by storm. He grew up in Detroit and became a dealer pretty young. He was shot at and he shot at people and eventually killed somebody. (Source)

A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3)

Sarah J Maas | 4.08

Water from My Heart

Charles Martin | 4.08

Lover Revealed (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #4)

J.R. Ward | 4.08

Before I Fall

Lauren Oliver | 4.07

The Masterpiece

Francine Rivers | 4.07

The Wall of Winnipeg and Me

Mariana Zapat | 4.07

Burial Rites

Hannah Kent | 4.07

Lead (Stage Dive, #3)

Kylie Scott | 4.07

Holes (Holes, #1)

Louis Sachar | 4.06

Ordinary Grace

William Kent Krueger | 4.06

Carl Bass Winner of the 2014 Edgar Award for the best novel, William Kent Krueger's "Ordinary Grace" is the story of a young teenager, Frank Drum. Set in the summer of 1961, the novel recounts, from the perspective of Frank looking back 40 years later, how he was suddenly and rudely ushered into an adult world filled with a labyrinth of secrets, betrayal and murder. Krueger unfolds a classically poignant... (Source)

Veronika Decides to Die

Paulo Coelho | 4.06

Twenty-four-year-old Veronika seems to have everything she could wish for: youth and beauty, pleny of attractive boyfriends, a fulfilling job, and a loving family. Yet something is lacking in her life. Inside her is a void so deep that nothing could possibly ever fill it. So, on the morning of November 11, 1997, Veronika decides to die. She takes a handful of sleeping pills expecting never to wake...

Twenty-four-year-old Veronika seems to have everything she could wish for: youth and beauty, pleny of attractive boyfriends, a fulfilling job, and a loving family. Yet something is lacking in her life. Inside her is a void so deep that nothing could possibly ever fill it. So, on the morning of November 11, 1997, Veronika decides to die. She takes a handful of sleeping pills expecting never to wake up.

Naturally Veronika is stunned when she does wake up at Villete, a local mental hospital, where the staff informs her that she has, in fact, partially succeeded in achieving her goal. While the overdose didn't kill Veronika immediately, the medication has damaged her heart so severely that she has only days to live.

The story follows Veronika through the intense week of self-discovery that ensues. To her surprise, Veronika finds herself drawn to the confinement of Villete and its patients, who, each in his or her individual way, reflect the heart of human experience. In the heightened state of life's final moments, Veronika discovers things she has never really allowed herself to feel before: hatred, fear, curiosity, love, and sexual awakening. She finds that every second of her existence is a choice between living and dying, and at the eleventh hour emerges more open to life than ever before.

In Veronika Decides to Die, Paulo Coelho takes the reader on a distinctly modern quest to find meaning in a culture overshadowed by angst, soulless routine, and pervasive conformity. Based on events in Coelho's own life, Veronika Decides to Die questions the meaning of madness and celebrates individuals who do not fit into patterns society considers to be normal. Poignant and illuminating, it is a dazzling portrait of a young woman at the crossroads of despair and liberation, and a poetic, exuberant appreciation of each day as a renewed opportunity.

Silas Marner

George Eliot | 4.06

Kyle Pruett George Eliot is a hell of a writer and I’m a big fan of the way liberal arts help us sharpen our philosophies. (Source)

Pearl in the Sand

Tessa Afshar | 4.06

The Light Between Oceans

M. L. Stedman | 4.05

Iron and Magic (The Iron Covenant #1)

Ilona Andrews | 4.05

Everything I Never Told You

Celeste Ng | 4.05

Sherrilyn Ifill @BronxRiverBooks @pronounced_ing I love this book. (Source)

Easy (Contours of the Heart, #1)

Tammara Webber | 4.04

Marilynne Robinson | 4.04

Emma Donoghu | 4.03

Bridge to Haven

Francine Rivers | 4.03

Dreaming of You (The Gamblers of Craven's, #2)

Lisa Kleypas | 4.03

Making Faces

Abrams Appleseed | 4.03

Fairytale Come Alive (Ghosts and Reincarnation, #4)

Kristen Ashley | 4.03

The Burning Maze (The Trials of Apollo, #3)

Rick Riordan | 4.03

Madeline Miller | 4.02

Jacqui Pretty When it comes to fiction, there are so many to choose from! Some books I've loved in the past year include Circe by Madeline Miller. (Source)

Jason Kottke Another contemporary reinterpretation of Greek mythology from the perspective of a woman. I’m 3/4s of the way through Circe right now and I might like it even more than The Odyssey. (Source)

The Golden Dynasty (Fantasyland, #2)

Kristen Ashle | 4.02

Marilynne Robinson | 4.02

Barack Obama According to the president’s Facebook page and a 2008 interview with the New York Times, this title is among his most influential forever favorites. (Source)

Kathleen Taylor It’s a remarkably empathetic and beautifully written book…It deals with a lot of the anxieties about physical failings, and anxieties about legacy. It really makes you feel that you’re being put in the mind of someone who hasn’t got long and is coping with that. (Source)

Song of Redemption (Chronicles of the Kings, #2)

Lynn Austin | 4.02

The Shepherd's Crown (Discworld, #41; Tiffany Aching, #5)

Terry Pratchett | 4.01

Anna (Redemption, #2)

Anna Lowe | 4.01

Dylan's Redemption

Jennifer Ryan | 4.01

Muse of Nightmares (Strange the Dreamer, #2)

Laini Taylor | 4.01

The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth, #3)

N. K. Jemisin | 4.01

Lady Luck (Colorado Mountain, #3)

Kristen Ashle | 4.01

A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast

Robin McKinley | 4.01

Wendelin Van Draane | 4.01

Ian McEwan | 4.01

Patricia Reed The portrayal of vastly different interpretations and outcomes from a single moment was thorough, unvarnished, and raw. I agonized and worried about the main character, and turned pages as fast as I could, hoping for resolution. (Source)

The Unwanted Wife (Unwanted, #1)

Marian Tee and CT Cover Creation | 4.00

The Contract (The Contract, #1)

Melanie Moreland | 4.00

The Boy & His Ribbon (The Ribbon Duet, #1)

Pepper Winters | 4.00

Dark Currents (The Emperor's Edge, #2)

Lindsay Buroke | 4.00

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A Tale of Redemption

The man turned. Coffee and cocoa leaves were piled up, all stuck together. Branches were rubbing against each other roughly in the wind. Samsu pushed the low door open, its hinges silent. He paused briefly. The quiet of the outside was shattered by the noise from the television on the wall. Almost everyone in the café was talking, commenting on the discussion taking place on the television.

If it were not for this being the between-season after the dry, when the weather was so changeable, no one would have noticed Samsu’s arrival. Just as he entered, a gust of wind blew up bringing in dry leaves and chill air. Several of the men looked up at the same time.

Samsu smiled in a friendly gesture. He hurried over to the corner near the bathroom and went to pull out a chair. He took off his scarf, cap, and thick jacket and placed them on the table.

Before Samsu had pulled out the chair, a man in a red T-shirt called out “Order a coffee. We’ll join you in a minute and keep going with the story from the other day.”

Samsu smiled again, giving a slight nod of his head. He straightened his right leg and took out a pack of cigarettes and a box of matches from his shirt pocket. He had barely taken three puffs before a glass of steaming black coffee appeared before him. Just as she had four days earlier, the woman retreated behind the counter. Before sitting down she wiped the coffee and water splashes from its glass top. The man in the red T-shirt drew up a chair beside Samsu.

“How’s it going, sir?”

“Hey, Buton. You can see the gentleman hasn’t finished his cigarette. Come back over here. There’s no hurry. We haven’t finished watching the show yet.”

“Ah, I’ve had enough. How can we talk with the television blaring?”

“OK, OK. We’re bored with it, mate,” said a man with a sarong around his shoulders as he drew up a chair in front of Samsu.

“Hey, what are you all going on about? We’ll never think for ourselves if we just accept everything officials say on television. Am I right, sir?”

“Ah, I haven’t watched television for ages,” said Samsu, flicking his ash on the floor.

The woman behind the counter stood up and brought over a metal dish as an ashtray, then went and sat back down.

“If that’s the case then we’ll move. Let’s sit in the middle over here.”

“OK, so everyone can hear the next episode of the story from the other day.”

“I’m not really very good at telling stories. The other day was just a fluke . . .”

“It was because Munik here sent us all home.”

“Come on, sir.” The man in the sarong brought Samsu’s coffee and ashtray over to the central table. Someone turned down the volume on the television.

“Hey, why did you do that? Wasn’t that what you were all talking about before?”

“It wasn’t anything important, sir. We’ve had the television blaring since early evening.”

“OK, and how can we compete with the television anyway?”

“We had no way of knowing you were going to come back. We’re dying of curiosity waiting for the next installment of the story.”

“Quiet. Not if you keep talking.”

“OK. So the gentleman can tell us the story . . .”

Finally Samsu picked up his pack of cigarettes and moved over to the central table. The eight men sat in a circle around him.

“So, where did we get up to? Oh, it was after the man got out of Wirogunan Jail . . .”

“No we didn’t get that far, sir. We almost got to that part last time.”

“What do you mean ‘that part’? You’ve got a dirty mind.”

Laughter filled the café. No one noticed the woman behind the counter turn off the television.

“Yes, as far as I remember . . . they’d almost got as far as the room. Together. Yes, what could they do?”

“Ah, a story’s no fun without a cigarette. Your pack’s almost empty. Hey Miss, can you bring this gentleman a cigarette. I’ll pay for it.”

“Gosh, you must have won the lottery . . .”

“No, it’s just that our parents taught us we have to look after our guests.”

The woman behind the counter turned and opened a pack of cigarettes.

“Don’t just give him one cigarette, Miss. I’m embarrassed . . . Bring him the whole pack.”

The woman brought over the pack of cigarettes and sat back down. There was faint music playing in the background, probably from a radio under the table.

I felt like I’d walked a long way. An awfully long way. Perhaps it just felt like that. I’d set out immediately after dark. When finally I entered the yard of the house the muezzin could be heard calling from the mosque. I had walked all through the night.

Any minute now it would be light. Any minute now people would be going to the well behind the house.

My knee was stiff and I had difficulty bending it. The wound beneath the cloth bandage on my right calf began to throb. It was very painful. I sat down under the window.

Before the muezzin had finished shouting (on account of the loudspeaker apparently being broken, along with all the lighting in the village), I tapped on the window. Softly. Very softly. I was afraid someone might hear it. So softly that I was also afraid she might not hear it either. A squeak from the window. It opened. Just a little.

I could see her eyes. Shining like those of a cat.

“Is that you?” Laksmi whispered .

My lips were cracked and stiff. The dried blood on my temple made it difficult to blink. I tilted my head. Hopefully the splinter of light from inside the room meant she received the nod.

Laksmi blinked. She looked shocked. Perhaps because my eyes were a sticky mess of brown and red. She opened the window all the way and I pushed my chest through it. Laksmi’s hands dragged me under the armpits. My knees and stiff bones felt the pain. I accidentally knocked over the mirror on the table near the bed when my toes touched it.

“Lak, what are you doing?” the voice of an old person called out from the well behind the house.

“Nothing, Aunty Min. It’s just the mirror. I accidentally knocked it over,” Laksmi quickly replied.

I held my breath, squatting at the foot of the bed.

Laksmi left the room, then came back with a glass of water, locking the door behind her. She blew out the oil lamp hanging near the door.

“I didn’t know where else to go, Las.”

“Uncle and Father have taken Aunty Sis to town.”

I felt something hot flowing down my cheeks. I couldn’t stem the flow of tears.

The pressure from the piece of banana tree stem that had been lodged in my throat all night long shifted. I choked. Laksmi pulled a cloth off the bed and cleaned my face with it. Dried the tears that covered my face.

“A truck came, Las. They shot Professor Munir outside the School of Political Science. The ten of us were thrown like sacks onto the truck. There were already a lot of people in it. It was piled up with dead bodies. I didn’t know where else to go, Las . . .”

Laksmi nodded. Her long hair touched the floor when it was loose from its bun. This was the first time I’d seen her unveiled.

“You can’t stay here. They’re still coming in and out of the village every day.”

My neck felt heavy. I was barely able to move it.

Smoke from the oil lamp was billowing throughout the room.

Suddenly there was a banging on the front door. We both held our breaths.

There was more banging on the door.

“I’ll go and open the door. You hide in the goat pen.”

“Don’t open it, Las.”

“I have to. They’ll only force it open otherwise. Quickly, go and hide.”

“Coming!” Laksmi said. She deliberately walked heavily across the front room so they’d hear her. Just as her hands were flinging open the front door I opened the kitchen door and slipped through the hole into the waist-high pen just outside. I crouched in a corner. The mouth of a goat chewing on jackfruit leaves touched my head. My feet were covered in mud and goats’ muck. The smell of urine made me gag. Mosquitos were buzzing all round me.

There was a pair of sandals by Aunty Min’s back door. Maybe the old woman had run to the mosque when the truck had stopped just now. All the doors of the neighbors’ houses and of those across the way were closed. The image of death was like the movement of passing clouds. 

I heard a door, perhaps the door to Laksmi’s room, being flung open. I heard a glass smash. Ah, we’d forgotten to hide the glass. I shrank even further as they approached. They were coming into the kitchen. A pot fell. A rice container was given a shove.

“Did you really see him, Jaman?”

“Yes, sir, I did.”

“I saw him go in via the window.”

“So you’re hiding a communist, are you?”

There was no sound. Then the breaking of china, the sound of tins falling, the sound of things crashing. The sound of Laksmi holding back tears. She was nearby. Maybe they had pushed her down onto the floor close to the kitchen door. Someone looked out the door. A goat bleated. The man came back inside.

“Nothing there, Commander.”

“Answer me or you’ll be taken away.”

“She’s the daughter of Kiai Munaf, the religious teacher, sir.”

I clenched my teeth to stop them from chattering.

“Hey, talk! Maybe you want to be softened up a bit first, so you’ll speak.”

“Jaman . . . said . . . there’s no one there.”

Laksmi’s voice was very soft.

“Shut up, you!”

The man Jaman went outside and lit a cigarette, standing not far from where I was crouching. His eyes glistened with unshed tears.

I could hear the sound of cloth being torn. And Laksmi’s sobs becoming fainter.

The café was silent but for the barely audible music from the radio.

“So the man just kept quiet in the goat pen?”

“Ssh . . .”

I shut my ears, but I couldn’t block out the sound of Laksmi’s sobs. It was crushing.

“Let’s go, Jaman.”

The sharp voice of someone calling. Jaman, who’d been Laksmi’s classmate at school, ground his cigarette butt with his foot. He went back into the kitchen. There was a sound of boots fading into the distance, then the truck drove off.

I crawled out of the pen.

It was still gray outside. The sky was hidden by a thicket of bamboo. The sun wasn’t visible yet, still wanting to stay put, not wanting to be disturbed. With a machete cut on my calf I hobbled away. Broke into a run until I could no longer hear Laksmi’s sobs.

“The bastard! He didn’t even stay to see how Laksmi was?”

Samsu took a deep drag on his cigarette, filling his lungs.

“He really is a bastard.”

“I have to meet my wife. I’m headed home.”

“We should all go home. Tomorrow morning we have an early start drying the cocoa.”

“Thanks for the story, sir. Will you be back tomorrow?”

Samsu didn’t answer. He ground his cigarette butt in the ashtray.

“Do come, sir. If not we’ll just ruin our minds listening to the corruptors talking on television.”

“Yes, do. But not such a sad story tomorrow.”

The eight men went over to the table by the door and paid for their coffees. The flaps of the door opened and closed, letting gusts of wind in. Samsu brought his hands together at his chest in a gesture of farewell.

The woman behind the counter turned off the radio. Samsu put on his cap, jacket, and scarf. He gave her some money. As she tidied up the coffee glasses the woman mumbled, “You don’t need to come again.”

“I want to beg your forgiveness, Laksmi.”

The woman gave him his change. She was covering her mouth with the fingers of her left hand. Covering the eight missing front teeth that had been knocked out by a rifle butt.

“Dongeng Penebusan” first published in Koran Tempo , 29 December 2013. © Mona Sylviana. By arrangement with the author. Translation © 2015 by Toni Pollard. All rights reserved.

Mona Sylviana

Mona Sylviana was born in 1972 in Bandung, West Java.…

Toni Pollard

Toni Pollard, a teacher of Indonesian language in…

The Queer Issue

World kid lit month: read around asia, tropical currents: writing by indonesian women.

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Top 10 books about justice and redemption

From Marilynne Robinson’s pensive Christian drama to Seamus Heaney’s blood-soaked Beowulf, here are the best books about restoring the cosmic balance

W e tend to consider the words justice and redemption as two separate things: legal actions and spiritual events. But in life and in literature, they are most often blurred and intertwined. We seek justice in our understandings of family, community, nation, history, humanity and self – and we search for redemption in those places as well. Redemption is also often sought in contemplation of the natural world, the cosmos, and re-evaluations of our sense of self and spirit. High church, low church or no church, we all struggle with these questions and find common cause, if not peace, in knowing this of each other.

Both justice and redemption also share the burdens of transgression, of wrongdoing and of evil. Books offer us a shared experience with characters as they struggle with these aspects of life, and also provide a means to place our own deeds and misdeeds in silent measurement – I’m clearly not as wretched as that fellow; or, just as likely: that feels terribly close to home. In either event, our humanity is relieved as we make judgments. Redemption, it seems, is possible.

Writing my latest novel, A Slant of Light , gave me ample opportunity to consider these questions. Against a backdrop of the US civil war, I dug into the psyche of a man who has committed a double murder but seeks no escape from punishment, while others around him struggle to use the crimes to their own advantage. While justice may be a very rough-edged sword, redemption is a never-ending struggle with the nature of life. In a sense, I distrust the notion of justice; it seems mostly a matter of retribution; of punishment. Justice suggests an equilibrium restored, which is not possible. Redemption is, I think, beyond the law, and thus attainable by each person according to their own efforts and needs.

Compiling this list led me to conclude that true justice is a rare bird in serious literature. Perhaps that explains the popularity of thrillers and mystery stories, where justice appears to end these tales, satisfying a need that is elusive in life, elusive in literature. Justice and redemption are both, at best, frail defences against humanity’s darker reaches. Frail but vital.

1. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

I’m tempted to double-down and add Lila to this list. But I had the great pleasure of rereading Gilead last summer and I find the Reverend John Ames to be one of the most interesting and engaging characters in modern literature. Robinson thinks deeply and carefully about redemptive matters of faith, family and history.

2. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner

Thomas Sutpen’s story is the story of America. Taming the wilderness, hoodwinking the native people, growing rich by slavery – even as he denies his own past and bloodlines, his secret mixed-race origins colliding with his own beliefs and those of his heirs. The result is his family’s destruction, as well as his own.

3. Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Hardy’s own subtitle best sums up the drama of justice and redemption offered by this book: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented. He employs the ancient devices of mistaken identity and misplaced heritage, but instead of playing them as a farce, this tale of rural poverty and landowners in 19th-century England is brutally tragic, as his heroine contends with an absolutely pitiless patriarchy.

4. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

There’s no escaping it: this is perhaps the greatest novel ever written. As such, it’s brimful of wordly justice and almost utterly lacking in redemption. Tolstoy, being Tolstoy, was not content to write a novel only about a “fallen” woman, but inserts us into the political life, the feudal system and the overarching military thrust of imperial Russia. The result is tactile, satisfying and immensely disturbing.

5. In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway

With his first collection of short stories, and the landmark novels that followed it, Hemingway blew up traditional narrative with stark, unsparing and never decorative prose. Big Two-Hearted River may be the finest piece of fiction ever written about the experience of the veteran. Here, the character lives with the sense of a wholly unjust world, where redemption is a tatty flag best kept unwaved. A book, still, for our time.

6. Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson

Finding something that can’t quite be quantified or even aptly described can be joyful. This verse novel offers a pure, dazzling love of language, capturing fleeting moments of the heart. Loosely based on an ancient Greek telling of Hercules’s 10th labour, it’s also a tale of adolescent love, coming of age and, perhaps, the perils of the modern world as well as the ancient. Difficult to describe, a delight to read. Human justice and the trials toward redemption abound.

7. Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje

A family torn apart by love and violence, in three parts. A wonderful journey always toward redemption and not quite making it – perhaps. The three parts are separate but also connected. This is a poet’s novel that gains rather than suffers from the poetry; book that grows and grows with rereading.

8. Harvest by Jim Crace

An end-of-days fable about a remote English village being torn apart by the end of common ownership of land and the life that went with it. Its characters see a fearful future and the arrival of strangers, bringing with them a strange new life. Crace takes us far away – and uncomfortably close to where we are just now. There’s some sort of justice in producing writing this close to the bone. Redemption, I’m less sure of.

9. Beowulf , translated by Seamus Heaney

The tension between the pagan warrior-code depicted within this bardic saga and the early Christianity of its unknown composer is given vitality and life in Heaney’s wondrous and loamy, visceral translation. The hero saves his people from a pair of monsters, and is a celebrated king who in old age is finally killed by a dragon in an epic battle. Glory in death is matched by immortality in art, in cycles and circles that are exhilarating to discover. Here, justice is by blood.

10. H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

A young woman’s grief over the early, untimely death of her father leads her into a kind of madness, which she copes with by training a goshawk for falconry. The hawk has its own form of lunacy, and Macdonald’s prose seems to allow us into its consciousness. The bird is finally untethered, allowing Macdonald to regain her own place on earth. As I came into the final quarter of this lovely, haunting book, I began to read in very small amounts, not wanting the story to end.

• Marilynne Robinson
• William Faulkner
• Thomas Hardy
• Leo Tolstoy
• Ernest Hemingway
• Michael Ondaatje

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Satan Thought He Had Me: Stories of Redemption That Will Give You Hope

Stories of redemption give us hope. In each life story, we may see pieces of our own lives. We witness the hope of redemption and the goodness of God’s grace, love, and mercy. And we remember that His redemption is available to each of us who love Him and surr ender our lives to Him .

Stories of Redemption That Will Give You Hope: The Series

Are you ready to be encouraged? To once again have hope in the middle of a complicated or painful situation? Do you need a reminder that no matter what you’ve gone through or may be going through, hope and joy are possible again? Life is complicated. Sorrow and pain are inevitable. But by taking both the hand of God and steps toward healthy living, you will once again experience joy.

So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten … jOEL 2:25(A) NKJV

God promises redemption. He promises restoration. He will restore what has been lost or taken from you.

This series features the stories of women who have experienced loss and heartache yet have also experienced restoration and redemption. Join me for all the series details at the end of this post, but for now, let’s dig into what redemption is. In particular what God’s redemption looks like.

Start Your Journey Today! Living surrendered takes courage. But when we let go and choose to trust God, we tap into a fountain of courage and of life-giving hope. Join me today to grow in your faith. You will get full access to the Library of Hope which is filled with free printable resources to start your journey.

What is Biblical Redemption?

Redemption comes from the Latin word, redimere . Red(i) means back and mere means buy . So, literally translated means to buy back. A worldly example of redemption would be to redeem a voucher or ticket. But Biblical redemption is so much more.

Redemption for When We Sin

God redeems us when we have sinned. Sin separates us from God. Because God is a holy and perfect God, He does not have sin. So, if we knowingly sin we cannot be in good relationship with Him without repentance and His purposeful decision to forgive us again and again.

Think of a close relationship you may have right now. Could that relationship be strong if you continually hurt that person, lied to them, or betrayed them ? Would your hearts be in sync in this situation? Of course not! It is the same with God. We cannot be intimate with Him if we aren’t trying to live well by Him.

Yet, in His deep love for us , He knew we needed redemption because our propensity to sin is too great. So, He gave His only son as that sacrifice for our sins. Yes, we must still turn our faces to Him and repent for our mistakes … our sins. But because of the ultimate Sacrifice, Jesus, we can know that we are forgiven . We are restored, blessed, honored, and redeemed.

  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16 NKJV

Redemption for When We’ve Been Hurt

God’s redemption is also for the things we have lost in this world. Whether it is our innocence, a loved one, a relationship, a job, or material things, God steps in on our behalf. He fights for us and He works all things together for the good of those who love Him.

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to  His  purpose. Romans 8:28 NKJV

This means that even though we suffer now and whatever happened is horribly unfair and unjust, we can know that we will find joy and hope once again. God takes the good and the bad of our lives and He weaves them together into something that we can once again call good. It doesn’t mean we will get everything back the same. Nor does it mean everything will go as we once planned. But it does mean there will be good in our lives again.

When I wrote my book, Surrendered Hearts , I shared how this truth worked out in our lives. It is part of my story of redemption. Our adoption didn’t go as planned. Our lives look nothing like I dreamed they would look. But in all the weeping, I have found joy once again. It’s not the joy I envisioned, but it is a joy that’s been chiseled out of the fire. And I believe it’s a more profound joy today. A more profound sense of hope because of the story we have lived and continue to live out.

For His anger  is but for  a moment, His favor  is for  life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy  comes  in the morning. Psalm 30:5 NKJV

This redemption is available to you, too. If you turn to Jesus, He will work all things together for the good and He will bring joy in the morning after a long season of dark nights.

For a deeper understanding of God’s redemption, I love this article by Chip Ingram titled, 5 Significant Things Found In Each of God’s Redemption Stories .

Joseph’s Story of Redemption in the Bible

One of my favorite stories of redemption in the Bible is that of Joseph in the Old Testament. His story is told in Genesis 37-50.

Joseph was his father, Jacob’s, favorite son. Joseph wasn’t humble about this as a young boy and triggered his already jealous siblings by telling them God said someday the brother’s sheaves of grain would bow down to his sheave of grain. They were angry with him and believed him to be saying they would someday bow down to him. Then, he did it again. He relayed the dream God sent to him where the sun and the moon and 11 stars were bowing down to him. Even his father rebuked him this time!

The brothers devised a plan to get rid of Joseph. They stripped Joseph of his beautiful robe and threw him into a deep hole in the ground. After deciding they didn’t want to kill him, they sold him to some Midianite merchants who brought him to Egypt and sold him to Potiphar, one of the Pharaoh’s officials. The brothers then dipped Joseph’s robe in goat’s blood and told their father wild animals had killed and eaten Joseph.

Imagine Joseph at this time. Betrayed … hated so deeply by his own brothers. Now he’d lost everything and had been sold into slavery. To the human eye, there was no sign of hope.

God was with Joseph and worked all things together for good. His story of redemption is powerful. Joseph goes on to experience success, more betrayal, and then the ultimate overcoming of all adversity. His dream does come true. His brothers do end up needing him and bowing down to him. And through this story of redemption, we witness Joseph’s unwavering faith and loyalty to God, the repentance of brothers who have committed a horrendous act, the reuniting of a father who deeply loved his son, and Joseph’s profound forgiveness for all the evil done to him.

Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for  am  I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me;  but  God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as  it is  this day, to save many people alive. Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. Genesis 50:19-21

Your Redemption Story

Your story of redemption will look different than Joseph’s story … or mine! But in it, is the power to encourage others and point them to the Redeemer — to Jesus. Maybe you have been afraid to share your story. Or, maybe you aren’t sure where to do so. But, friend, do not fear. God will use it for good. Whether He gives you one person, a group, or thousands, every life matters. And when you share your God story, you are within His will and that is the most wonderful place to be!

Let the redeemed of the Lord say  so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy … Psalm 107:2 NKJV

All the Series’ Details! Satan Thought He Had Me: Stories of Redemption That Will Give You Hope!

Join us for this bi-monthly series where women tell their stories of redemption. Satan thought he had them. He thought he’d stolen their hope or sewn enough confusion into their minds that they would walk away from Jesus. He thought he’d stolen their voices and won.

But God. He gave them wings to fly instead.

These women are not only gifted writers but are brave and courageous. They have lived to tell of God’s great love and redemption. I am honored and thankful to each of them for their willingness to share their story. And I am excited beyond measure at what God will do through their words!

If you know someone who is struggling with a difficult situation, share this blog post and series with them to show them that redemption is possible. Encourage them to use their experiences to help others and remind them that with Christ they can overcome any trial.

Are you trying to find a way to stay connected and rooted when everything seems to be falling apart?

Introducing my free set of 10 original identity-in-Christ coloring pages. These beautiful, uplifting coloring pages are designed to help you find solace and stay grounded through the power of faith. By focusing on Christ and His Word, you’ll discover that nothing is impossible.

Sign up below to become one of my subscribers and receive these inspiring coloring pages for free. Each page contains a message of hope, reminding you of your true identity in Christ and that even in the darkest times, you can find strength in Christ. Simply download and print them whenever you need a moment of peace and reflection.

See the Complete Series: Stories of Redemption

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Books with powerful stories of redemption.

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Wow! I really love this. I can hardly wait to read this upcoming series, seeing how God has moved so powerfully through the lives of ordinary women.

Hi Erica! I am excited, too! Each woman has a powerful redemption story. A story that points to Jesus as our hope and way through the pain. He is a good good God! I can’t wait to read yours soon!

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12 Inspiring Books About Redemption

Personal growth.

August 03, 2020

By Gracelyn Mitchell

Redemption is one of the greatest things to witness and one of the most relieving things to experience. After all, it is inevitable that we, as humans, will all make mistakes. And we are bound to have periods in our life where we feel absolutely suffocated by heartbreak and grief—but when we surmount the odds, we relish in the adversity.

We've compiled some heart-wrenching and agonizingly-relatable novels dealing with redemption that readers spanning from GoodReads to BookBub are gushing over. Check out this list of breath-taking novels that tell the tales of tumultuous plights to scope out your next compelling read!

1) The Story Teller by Jodi Picoult

Written by veteran writer, Jodi Picoult, as her twenty-second novel, The Storyteller revolves around 25-year-old Sage Singer. Sage is a busy baker living in New Hampshire who is very familiar with grief. Just a few years prior to when the story takes place, she lost her mother in a car accident while she was behind the wheel. Sage is left with a gaping, mother-shaped hole in her heart and a large scar across her cheek, constant reminders that she was (she feels) directly responsible for her mother's death.

Since then, Sage has been languishing in the night shifts at the Our Daily Bread Bakery and leading a lonely life (which she believes she deserves). She avoids contact with her sisters, scared that they blame her for their mother's passing; she is in a complicated relationship with a married funeral director; and, despite coming from a profoundly-Jewish family, Sage describes herself as an atheist. All the while, Sage is finding the weight of flashbacks, loneliness, grief, and the looming presence of her mother's death unbearable.

Things take a turn when she meets Josef Weber, a newly-widowed older man who the community as a "model citizen", through her grief support group. The two strike an unprecedented connection and begin confiding in one another. But the surprising relationship takes an even more unexpected turn when Josef tells Sage one of his most concealed and shameful secrets—one that could change Westerbrook, New Hampshire's perception of him—and asks her for an unfathomable favor.

Should she accept, she will face moral conflict and potentially legal persecution. As the story progresses, Sage must decide how to prioritize her morals and if she should while facing some difficult questions.

Jodi Picoult is an avid writer, having published 26 books as of 2020. She received an A.B. in English from Princeton University and a degree in education from Harvard. Her novel, Storyteller , called "searingly honest" promises to be complex and heartrending.

2) Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

In her debut 2013 novel, Burial Rites , Australian writer, Hannah Kent, gives an electrifying retelling of the last public execution in Iceland. In 1829, an Icelandic servant named Agnes Magnusdottir was convicted of killing her employer and another man, then burning their remains. While awaiting Denmark (who then controlled Iceland)'s ratification of her death sentence, Agnes is sent to intern at an isolated farm. And this, the months before Agnes' death, is where Hannah Kent's fictional account takes flight.

Kent reimagines Agnes' past. In the riveting story, the family that owns the farm is horrified at the idea of housing a convicted murderer, and they actively distance themselves from her. Agnes can only find solace and compassion in a local priest named Tóti, who has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian and attempt to salvage her tarnished soul. As the tale unwinds, the family holding Agnes slowly comes to learn, much like the readers themselves, that there is another face to the widespread story that they have heard.

The sensational and haunting novel offers a new, redeeming, and enduring perspective to the tragic and evocative Icelandic legend. Chilling and instilling, Burial Trials is sure to be an excellent choice for those intrigued by a novel with a twist of historical fiction,redemption of a formerly-reprimanded figure, and folklore.

3) The Seventh Most Important Thing by Shelley Pearsall

Former teacher and historian, Shelley Pearsall, brings a sublime twist to historical fiction with her 2016 novel, The Seventh Most Important Twist .

Teenager, Arthur T. Owens, is struggling through the emotions and trauma of his father's recent death. It an outburst of anger, 13-year-old Arthur picks up a nearby brick and throws it at the Trash Man as he collects the garbage.

The brick hits the Trash Man's arm— thankfully not his head—but the judge still looms the threat of juvenile detention over the young, grieving boy's head. That is, until, the assaulted Trash Man himself offers an alternative...120 hours of community service, working for him and by his side.

The Trash Man gives Arthur a list of the "seven most important things" that he must collect: glass bottles, foil, cardboard, pieces of wood, lightbulbs, coffee cans, and mirrors. At first, Arthur is appalled by the idea of scouring through others' trash, but eventually—he and the Trash Man begin to form a bond, and Arthur comes to learn that the man AKA Mr.Hampton is collecting the apparent "garbage" and transforming it into fantastic, striking art. Slowly, Arthur begins to cope with his grief and grow a love for forming masterpieces and slowly work towards redeeming his character.

Based on Shelley Pearsall's experience with the artist James Hampton, a janitor who built works of art out of broken glass, wire, and lightbulbs, mirrors, and foil in his Washington D.C. garage, The Seventh Most Important Thing has been exulted continually by teachers and librarians alike.

Called "luminescent, just like the artwork it celebrates" by The Kirkus Review, The Seventh Most Important Thing is a raw and wonderous read, and a great selection for those interested in a wholesome story with components of self-reflection and discovery, grief, and survival spun in the middle.

4) The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didon

The experience of losing a loved one is always filled with agonizing despair. Joan Didon is familiar with this experience. In her 2005 National Book Award-winning memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking , Joan explores her subsequent emotions after the striking loss of her husband, John Gregory Dunne. The pair had been married since 1946 until John suffered a heart attack and died in 2003.

Joan recounts her husband's death and the series of graveling events surrounding it with new analysis, contemplating the thoughts and emotions she waded through during that time and how the fundamental functionality of her life changed afterward. Joan exposes the relentless strife of that period in her life with vulnerable relinquishment: days before her husband's death, their daughter, Quintana, was hospitalized with pneumonia.

And when Quintana found out about her father's death, she rushed to board a flight to her childhood home of Malibu, later falling and hitting her head while disembarking, again being hospitalized and rendered unconscious for days afterward.

At the beginning, Joan first expresses abnegation towards her grief, displaying very little raw or unveiled emotion, or eloquent diction. However, as the novel progresses, her mind begins to swirl with questions about the medical details relating to her husband's death, the agony of realizing that John could have possibly been expecting the sudden end to his life, and new waves of guilt.

The enormity of the recalled events begin to take their toll on her, that is, within the few times the pressures of her daughter's continuing health concerns aren't stunting the natural course of her grieving process.

The title of the memoir itself is conceived from Joan's own thin, anthropological idealogy of hope: that if a person hopes for a better outcome hard enough, or they perform the right rituals, seemingly unavoidable and soul-crushing events can be averted.

Real, rigid, and vulnerable, The Year of Magical Thinking is resounding and perfect for the reader yearning for their soul to be touched.

5) I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson

Jandy Nelson's second novel, a Pritz and Stonewall Honor Book Award-winning sensation, I'll Give You the Sun , is a book with a gravitational pull revolving around twins Noah and Jude Sweetwine. The two almost-teenage siblings have become polarized in recent years for more reasons than one.

They both share a competitive spirit—over the affection of their mother, Dianne, and furthermore, a spot in a highly-selective art high school. But the separation does not end there—the twins' very identities contrast, with Jude being a red-lipstick-loving reserved artist who enjoys cliff-diving and the affection of boys, and Noah being the expressive artist and closeted gay teenage boy falling in love with the boy next door, Brian.

But now, after years of not speaking to each other, Noah and Jude must confront the lies, secrets, guilt, and grief that brought them to their present-day life, each sharing half of the difficult and convulsing story. Already suffocated by heavy circumstances, the twins must learn to forgive, however agonizing, in order to reshape their world and rekindle their relationship. Along the way, the must ask themselves and each other extremely difficult questions.

With two different perspectives twisted together, I'll Give You the Sun is a radiant, harrowing, and profoundly-moving is a perfect addition to the acclaimed author of The Sky is Everywhere's work and a perfect read those seeking an artfully-woven story about betrayal, forgiveness, and acceptance.

6) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Afghan-born acclaimed author, Khaled Hosseini, responded to the ongoing immigration crisis with his tragic 2003 novel, The Kite Runner . The elaborating and grappling story revolves around the friendship between a young, wealthy boy named Amir and Hassan, the son of his father's servant. The two find solace in peacefully flying kites through the air while the tumultuous events of Afghanistan rage behind them: from the fall of the monarchy to the Soviet military, from the flood of refugees to Pakistan and the United States to the rise of the Taliban regime.

The two form an unimaginable bond. That is, until, Amir's father begins showing affection to Hassan while still criticizing his own son's actions and love for writing (which he claims is a talent only useful to women). Additionally, the diminishing world surrounding them begins to come crashing down on them with full force. Now Amir must course through a strenuous path of redemption, betrayal, friendship, sacrifice, and fatherly love.

Besides writing his astonishing novel, The Kite Runner , has provided empathetic advocacy to the immigration and Afghan crises in more ways than one. He is a Goodwill Envoy for the UNHCR and the UN Refugee Agency. He is also the founder of the Khaled Hosseini Foundation, a non-profit that provides humanitarian support for those struggling in Afghanistan.

Intense and considered a quick class, The Kite Runner will strike a chord in those looking for a touching yet heart-wrenching story.

7) Unfollow by Meagan Phelps-Roper

It already seems unbearable enough to live in the same world as the Westboro Baptist Church, a cult-like "religious" organization based in Topeka, Kansas know for their inflammatory hate speeches; unfathomably inappropriate and heartless protests at the funerals of veterans, AIDS victims, and shooting victims; and their appalling behavior towards Jews, Muslims, members of the LGBTQ+ community, Catholics, Orthodox Christians, 9/11 victims, and atheists. But what if you were forced to be a member of the church and participate in the cruel protests?

For Megan Phelps-Roper, the question is more than a horrifying hypothetical—it was reality.

Megan Phelps-Roper was born into the Westboro Church as the oldest of seven siblings. Her grandfather, Fred Phelps, was the founder. She began participating in the church's provoking protests as young as five-years-old.

When she got older, she served as the outrageous organization's Twitter spokeswoman. That is where she experienced her awakening. Through the dialogue of commenters rebutting her posts, Meagan began to see things from a different perspective and doubt the claims of the caustic organization she had been a part of for the vast majority of her life.

As she countered the critics, Meagan began to grow a somewhat-open mind. She later began exchanging messages with a man that would help to change her life.

Finally, in November 2012, Meagan Phelps-Roper renounced the Westboro Baptist Church along with her sister. Since then, she has traveled around the world, telling her story and warning others about the despotic church as well as meeting and talking with the groups she once protested against.

Released in 2019, Unfollow is a memoir of Meagan's experiences with the church as well as the exhausting process of seeing the truth and untangling herself from the organization. Unnerving and harrowing, Unfollow is the perfect anguished story with a triumphant and redeeming ending.

8) Finding Me: A Decade Of Darkness, A Life Reclaimed: A Memoir of the Cleveland Kidnappings by Michelle Knight With Michelle Burford

No one was expecting to find the three young women that went missing in Cleveland, Ohio in the early 2000s. Families, and the state alike, were losing hope. Approximately a decade passed from when they each first went missing, and finally, Amanda Berry, Georgina "Gina" DeJesus, and Michelle Knight all escaped their abductor, Ariel Castro's, torturous prison of a house in May of 2013. "The Cleveland Kidnappings", also called the Ariel Castro Kidnappings, occurred from 2002 to 2004.

Each girl was taken from relatively the same area, and each was deployed into Ariel Castro's sickening world of constant and horrific sexual, emotional, domestic, and psychological abuse while their heartstricken families searched for them. In an absolutely miraculous turn of events, Amanda Berry managed to escape the house with her six-year-old daughter (a result of one of Castro's several non-consensual sexual acts) and catch the attention of a nearby neighbor of Castro's, who helped her contact the authorities.

The police arrived at Castro's on the fateful day of May 6, 2013, and at long last, freed the enduring victims much to everyone, especially the families', relief, awe, shock, and joy. The story swept headlines all over the world as Cleveland, Ohio welcomed back the survivors in utter amazement.

Ariel Castro was sentenced to life in prison plus 1,000 years with no opportunity for parole on August 1, 2013; however, he later died on September 3, 2013 after committing suicide in his own cell. He served a little over a month for his crimes, while Amanda Berry, Georgina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight were forced to live in a nightmarish world he created for ten years.

Michelle Knight, one of Ariel Castro's three captives, was well acquainted with hardship before being abducted in August of 2002 at the age of 21 after stopping in a store and asking a man (Castro) for directions. She grew up in a despotic household struck by poverty and sexual misconduct. At 18, she gave birth to her son, Joey, but she later lost custody of him after her mother's drunken boyfriend fractured the three-year-old's knee and social services eventually put him in foster care.

Desperate to get her son back, Michelle got lost while on her way to a case management meeting and stopped to ask directions from the same man who would become her captor. After fifteen months of searching, the police declared her a runaway due to her experiences of running away from home in the past and took her off the missing persons list.

In her unnerving and endearing memoir, Finding Me: A Decade of Darkness, a Life Reclaimed , Michelle Knight (now also know as Lily Rose Lee) recounts her horrifying and downright-unimaginable circumstances, the theologies that helped encourage her spirit, the trials she had to stand witness at, and the process of rebuilding her life after her sensational escape. Heartbreaking and horrendous, Finding Me is the perfect selection for a reader seeking out a powerful and compelling tale of unfathomable endurance.

Readers should be warned that Michelle Knight's memoir is raw and real, and therefore, discusses some of the non-consensual sexual acts that she was forced to participate in, which some readers may find triggering.

9) The Heart and Other Monsters: A Memoir by Rose Andersen

In her 2020 debut novel, The Heart and Other Monsters: A Memoir , Rose Anderson goes on an exploration through her own lingering and festering grief.

In 2013, Rose lost her sister, Sarah to an overdose, a complex tragedy often met with misconception and harsh criticism. Sarah was only 24-years-old when she overdosed on heroin in the bathroom of her boyfriend's home while living in a small town with the highest rate of opioid use in the state. In her grief, Rose longs for understanding.

She decides to attempt gaining her sister's perspective on life. To do so, she starts revisiting their explosive and tentative picture with a fresh mind. Doing so leads to a shift in her vision of their upbringing, as what she recalls is a once-veiled despotic home with a constantly-enraged pathological liar of a father.

As the new, confusing picture of their childhood comes into focus, Rose does some research into the availability of rehabilitation in small towns in America and into the opioid crisis in general. What she finds is shocking and heartbreaking.

But then another unexpected curveball is thrown Rose's way when the coroner assigned to Sarah's case informs her that Sarah's cause of death an overdose of methamphetamine, not an overdose of heroin.

In her stunning and tranquilizing memoir, Rose recounts her emotionally-draining pursuit following the death of her sister and the imagination she had to summon in order to finally receive closure. Readers join Rose in the enthralling novel about sisterly-love and perception as she wades through the path of awareness and discovery, an elusive verdict looming over her head.

10) Blame by Michelle Huneven

California food journalist and author of Round Rock and Jamesland , Michelle Huneven, returns with a volatile and hair-raising addition entitled Blame .

The novel, which was named a Washington Post Best Book of the Year in 2009, opens with twelve-year-old, precocious Joley getting her ears pierced by her uncle's girlfriend, Patsy. In Part Two, the story begins to shift and revolve solely around Patsy, who is a twenty-eight-year-old history professor with a new Ph.D. and a wild streak. She has a habit of drinking to the point of blacking out. It is after one of these instances that the once-promising graduate finds herself in jail the next morning, accused of murdering a mother and her daughter after running over them in her driveway.

While in prison, Patsy works at a firefighting camp and is forced to join A.A. (Alcoholics Annonymous). Guilt and shame inspire her to make amends and correct her life. After spending decades in prison atoning her mistakes, Patsy is released, now sober.

She starts life with a fresh outlook. She moves into a new apartment (one that bears no association to her crime or addiction), returns to teaching, and marries a much older man she met while in A.A.

Things are on the come-up for Patsy. That is...until Joley suddenly re-enters her life, now in her twenties, and exposes a part of Patsy's crime (and life) that will force her to re-analyze the events in a new light.

Astounding and morally-complex, Blame is the perfect read for those seeking a story involving compunction and forgiving the seemingly-unpardonable.

11) Atonement by Ian McEwan

Beloved British author, Ian McEwan, wrote the metafiction novel Atonement in 2001, and it quickly rose to the status of "classic" in the subsequent years.

With eloquent twists of symphonic diction, Atonement tells the story of Briony Tallis, a thirteen-year-old growing up in 1935 England with a talent for writing. Briony lives on her family's country estate with her parents and sister, Cecilia, a recent University of Columbia graduate. Cecilia starts to develop a relationship with fellow classman, Robbie Turner, son of one of the family's servants and a childhood friend of Briony's.

But one day, Briony spots Cecilia and Robbie struggling by the fountain. Her inability to fully-comprehend adult films paired with precocious love of literature lead her to interpret the scene as a moment of sexual tension between the pair. Briony further misconstrues the situation and comes to believe that Robbie is acting aggressively towards Cecilia. The day she walks in on them having sex in the library does not help matters.

But when Briony's maternal cousin, Lola, and her twin brothers come to stay with her family while their parents sort through an inflammatory divorce, Briony witnesses a horrific act involving Lola- and she takes her fantasies a step too far—making an irreversible accusation that will tarnish the family and her sister's passionate relationship.

As the novel follows the repercussions and guilt of Briony's claims, the story is divided into three parts: 1935 England, Second World War England and France, and present-day England—making it the perfect read for those seeking a historical novel with tangible slivers of reliability.

A masterpiece spun from gentle, invoking authority and moral complexities, Atonement is a gut-wrenching story about half-innocent mistakes, making reparations, and experiencing delayed guilt.

It is worth noting the "horrific act" that Briony witnesses is of graphic sexual nature, and could be potentially triggering for some readers.

12) Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

Later made into a 2014 film adaptation, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail is Cheryl Strayed's sensational memoir, recounting 1,100 mile hike through Pacific Crest. After going through one of the most arduous years of her life—in the wake of her mother(who was only 45)'s premature death, her family is divided, she is later divorced, and in the subsequent years, a lover convinces her to try heroin.

Four years later, with lingering grief and nothing more to lose, Cheryl makes an impulsive decision that will change her life forever: with no prior training, Cheryl decides she walk over 1,000 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert—from California to Oregon, to Washington State—and she would do it alone.

At the age of 26, Cheryl sets out on a journey to surmount both the Pacific Crest Trail and her own grief, making observations and profound realizations about life along the way. A raw retelling of transformation, endurance, self-discovery, and spiritual-realization, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail pledges to be the perfect novel for readers yearning for an undoubtedly and simply inspirational story.

Good Reads: Page Turners!

These books about redemption will no doubt leave a wow to your mind and inspire you with different perspectives. As they say, good reads feed the soul!

Think this article is a must-read? Share it! 🤳💬

Gracelyn Mitchell 20k+ pageviews

Gracelyn Mitchell is a Junior at The University of Alabama, majoring in English with a double-minor in Psychology and Communicative Disorders. She is a 2019 and 2021 National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards Alumna, 2021 American Voices Aaward Nominee, and 2019 Letters About Literature State Semi-Finalist. In 2022, she started a podcast with her best friend from college, Caffeine and Cadavers, where they discuss true crime cases with a coffee/mental health break at the end. In the Summer of 2023, Gracelyn became a Creative Media & Marketing Intern for Kentuck Festival of the Arts, one of the oldest art centers in Alabama and the host of an over-fifty-decades-old annual art festival. She is also an active member of The University of Alabama chapter of the National Student Speech-Language-Hearing Association (NSSLHA). As an experienced writer and content creator, Gracelyn also runs her own writing blog where she encourages new and established writers and provides them with resources. As a queer woman that grew up in the south, she advocates for social justice and human rights. After finishing undergrad, she intends to pursue her masters in Speech-Language Pathology. Her ultimate goal is to continue creating content with a purpose and help others pursue a more benevolent society.

Website: https://districtsofdustgra.wixsite.com/home

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Redemption in the Bible: 7 Powerful Stories

T he Bible is a book about redemption. God wants to communicate this story to us through His Word. He does this by giving us many smaller stories that illustrate the wonderful truth of the redemption provided through His Son, Jesus Christ.

There are at least three words in the Bible which are translated “redeem.”

• One means to buy or purchase. The concept is in the purchase of a slave. He is bought to be owned as property. Christ redeemed us in this sense so that we belong to Him.
• Another word translated redeemed means to buy something from something for another purpose. Again, we are purchased by Christ from the bondage of sin for the purpose of freedom in Him.
• The third word carries the idea of a purchase that pays off a debt. A price that is necessary to secure the freedom of someone or something. Christ paid our sin debt.

As you read these redemption stories you can see one, two, or all three of these meanings in each of them. The Bible is full of stories about redemption. These are but a few.

Noah – Genesis 6-8

One of the greatest stories of redemption in the Old Testament is the story of Noah . God warned of a coming judgment. This was going to be a world-wide punishment. Those who would repent of their sins and believe in the warnings of Noah were welcome to board the ark before the flood waters began to fall.

After 120 years of preaching the only people who stepped onto the ark were Noah and his family. Though there was room for many more people in the ark, only eight were saved.

Redemption was offered to all who were willing to repent and believe. However, few accepted the offer.

Abraham and Isaac – Genesis 22

God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac. Throughout the whole process of going to the mountain to sacrifice, Isaac was obedient and Abraham was hopeful. Abraham fully expected to sacrifice his child on the altar, but he was also confident in the fact that God could raise his child from the dead.

What Abraham did not expect was that God had a completely different plan in mind. Moments before Abraham thrust the knife into his child, God provided a sacrificial ram to take the place of Isaac. God redeemed Isaac with this ram. It is an example of how that God redeems us with the sacrifice of His Son.

Ruth – Ruth 1-4

The book of Ruth teaches many lessons. But the overall story is one of redemption.

A Hebrew family moved to a foreign land. Ruth married into this family; but, tragically, all the men died. Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi, move back to the land of Israel. Ruth then became the foreigner in a strange land.

In an effort to provide for her mother-in-law, Ruth went to gather grain in the fields. She met the wealthy land owner where she had been working. This man, Boaz, happened to be a near kinsman to Naomi. But, there was another family member who was an even closer relative.

As a close relative, the second man had the responsibility to care for Naomi and Ruth. He even possessed the right to marry the beautiful young lady. But he neither wanted the responsibility nor the right. Boaz approached the closer kinsman with the willingness to assume the responsibility for the family and the right to marry Ruth. The man accepted and Ruth joined Boaz in marriage.

The Bible calls Boaz the kinsman redeemer. He bought the responsibility to care for the ladies and the right to marry Ruth. Even as a foreigner, this redemption into the family of Israel put Ruth into the lineage of King David and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Potter – Jeremiah 18:1-6

Jeremiah the prophet was instructed to go to a potter’s house. At the house he saw the potter make a pot that was not quite to his liking. The potter pushed the malleable pot into a ball of clay once again. Then he proceeded to remake the pot into something better.

God likened the pot to the people of Israel. He said that He was the potter. God told Jeremiah that as the maker and molder of the nation of Israel, God had the authority to shape the nation as He pleased.

God’s ownership over Israel means that He cares for them. Like the potter, God lovingly molds His people into a vessel that He is proud to display.

Lost Sheep – Luke 15:1-7

When the religious crowd of Jesus’ day complained that He was spending too much time with the sinners of society, Jesus told a few redemption stories. He started with the story of the lost sheep.

“I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.” Luke 15:7

A man owned 100 sheep. But, one day while away from home, one of the sheep was lost. He secured the 99 sheep and went in search of the single lost sheep. He carried the lost sheep gently back to the 99.

Jesus said that the man went home and threw a feast in honor of the fact that his sheep was found—it was redeemed. Jesus’ application to the religious crowd was that lost sheep (sinners) need to be found. There is rejoicing in heaven over their salvation. The ones who are religious and see no need in repentance and salvation will not be celebrated in heaven because they have not received the redemption provided by Christ.

Prodigal Son – Luke 15:11-32

J esus told this story shortly after telling the story of the lost sheep.

A rich man had two sons. One day the younger son went to his father and asked for his inheritance. He was leaving home. It is apparent that the boy did not have a good relationship with his father. Though his father loved him, the young man felt like he would be better off without the constraints of the family.

After a time he ran out of money. He had spent it all on entertainment and frivolity. Because of a famine in the land he was in an even more desperate situation. He went to work for a farmer feeding pigs. Eventually he was even eating with the pigs. The young man decided that it would be better to return to the house of his father as a servant than to starve away from home.

When he neared his home he was met by his father. The older man had been watching and waiting for his son’s return. The father gladly welcomed him home , not as a servant, but as a son. A feast was made. A robe and a ring were given to the son to attest to his position in the family. Though he had gone away, his father accepted him back with no change in his status as a son.

Saul of Tarsus – Acts 9:1-22

On the road to Damascus, Saul of Tarsus encountered the Lord. Saul knew very well who Jesus Christ was. But up until that time Saul did not believe that Jesus was the Redeemer promised by God. That day, on his way to capture Christians and take them to prison, Saul saw Jesus for who He really was.

The man who had brought so much persecution to the early church was redeemed by the love of Christ. Saul was later known by the name Paul. This is the man who we call the Apostle Paul. He was responsible for spreading the true Gospel of Jesus throughout the known world in his time

Your Favorite Redemption Story

There are many more stories of redemption in the Bible. Leave a comment below and tell us about your favorite one.

Want to read more about Saul of Tarsus? Take a look at this article, also written by David: Apostle Paul Biography and Profile

Resource – The Holy Bible, King James Version. YouTube video “Redeemed Medley” by Greater Vision

Tagged as: bible , Bible Stories , redemption

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By John Gardner , first published in The Atlantic .

After a terrible accident, a boy and his family spend the next years in a depression that verges masochism.

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One spring afternoon while ploughing the land of his family’s 10 acre farm in West New York State, Jack ran over and killed his younger brother, David, as his young sister, Phoebe, looked on screaming. David’s death leaves the family devastated. Dale, Jack’s father and a usually cheery man and poet, spirals into a suicidal depression that sends him off on long, lonely, and contemplative trips, abandoning his family and his work on the farm. Jack’s mother is similarly overwhelmed by the death of her youngest son—spending nights exhaustedly, silently crying in her room— but still manages the responsibilities of the house. Since the accident, Jack is plagued by its tragic memory; he spends the time doing chores vacantly contemplating David’s death and suicide, his anguish churning and growing inside him. David finds some short-lived reprieve and “community” in the cows he must tend to, in their rhythmic, ocean-wave-like chewing, but becomes incensed by their stupidity.

Nearly two years later, after a particularly long day on the farm and three weeks of his father being absent, Jack sees his family— his mother, sister, Uncle Walt, Aunt Ruth and their children— siting in the living room of their house crying. He enters the room and sees his father, kneeling on the floor with his face in his mother’s lap, “sobbing like a baby.” Dale calls Jack to him, both of them crying. Jack softly whispers “I hate you.” 

Afterwards, Dale regains control of his emotions and house once more and returns to his life of church and poetry, an obviously life-worn man ,and Jack takes up playing the French horn with a famous Russian musician, Arkady Yegudkin, whose imperious style unsettles a timid Jack.

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Home › Articles › Redemptive Storytelling: Reimagining the World through a Hopeful Lens

Redemptive Storytelling: Reimagining the World through a Hopeful Lens

Monday, October 10, 2022

Logan Prince graduated from Liberty University in 2019 with degrees in Journalism and Theology and Apologetics. Since graduating, he has been working as a producer at Bellevue Baptist Church in Nashville, TN.

Stories matter. Worldview stories shape perspectives. Fictional stories instill values. The grand narrative of the Bible influences, well, everything. Stories fill a perennial role in the lives of all humans; they serve as a sort of collective memory, inculcating ideas and patterns into our lives. Through stories we can experience suffering, discover love, and learn lessons that we never would have been exposed to otherwise. The stories we hear shape our perception of reality, normality, and relationships. This is why Christian story telling matters. Building stories that reflect the Gospel is a key way of helping people understand the Gospel, and this is why redemptive story telling is so significant.

While I was a student at Liberty University, I double majored. My passion for writing led me to Journalism while my passion for Christian doctrine led me to Theology and Apologetics. Like most students—except for those few who possess unusual clarity on their postgrad path—I had no clue how I was going to use my degrees. I certainly had no idea how to combine them. I felt caught between two worlds. On one side, certain news outlets wielded accusations of hypocrisy and harsh rhetoric to attack the faith whose history and depth I was studying and basing my life upon. On the other side was a regiment of fellow believers aggressively building walls to keep out the dishonest and biased efforts of “mainstream media.” I found myself standing, unwittingly, in the middle of this tense conflict.

It seemed like I had to pick a side. Should I be a journalist or a theologian? Thankfully, through the advice of professors, friends, and some wonderful books, I have found a way to bring my two passions together—a “marriage of state,” if you will. Historically speaking, a marriage of state is a diplomatic union intended to bring or keep peace between two countries. In this case, I wanted to bring together elements from both sides of my education to demonstrate the power of the Gospel in storytelling. Taking the practice of investigative journalism and joining it with the redemptive themes and hopes of Christianity leads to a beautiful practice—redemptive storytelling.

Redemptive storytelling is the sharing of real stories that both reflect the truth of God’s already accomplished redemptive work and partake in God’s ongoing work of redemption at individual and universal levels.

Let’s break that down.

Envisioning Redemptive Storytelling

To start, redemptive stories are the real stories of our families, neighbors, communities, nations, and world. Every real story should hint at redemption—that in some way God has rescued this story from what it would’ve been without him. Left on its own, every story would be tragic and hopeless. Only with God can goodness enter in since “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). Redemptive stories ought to participate in the continuation of God’s redeeming work. As a believer who shares the stories of others, I can tell stories in a way that shows others the possibility and reality of redemption in the lives of people, in broken societal structures, and in our fallen world.

I’ve been lucky enough to produce and write these redemptive stories for a few years now, first in college and now as a video producer for a church. My experience so far has showed me why redemptive storytelling is important and what the best redemptive stories often look like. To start, redemptive storytellers function as archeologists uncovering stories. Sometimes this looks like encouraging people to share their testimonies of God’s grace. Other times it may consist of bringing sins to light that have been wrongly kept in the dark. No matter what is being revealed, redemptive storytellers are to be gentle, thorough, and never exaggerate their findings.

Another helpful way of understanding redemptive storytelling is through optometry. Redemptive storytellers are meant to help Christians truly see the people, communities, and issues around them. Unless the Church sees individuals hurting, it will never be moved to bring about healing. Unless the Church sees the realities of local communities, it will never know how to be a good neighbor. And unless the Church sees examples of God’s faithfulness in the past, it will begin to doubt whether God will be faithful in the future. Seeing is an important starting point; while one can see or know without loving, one can never love without seeing or knowing.

Lastly, redemptive storytellers are worship leaders. Individually, it is an act of worship for a person to use their talents to tell stories that honor God. Corporately, as people encounter God, His creation, and His truth through these stories, worship should follow. Though there should be entertaining aspects to these stories, their primary purpose is to leave people thinking about God, his ways, and his glory.

Redeeming Incomplete Stories

It is tempting (and far easier) to tell stories with simple and tidy endings, but I have found that the best redemptive stories are actually the messy, incomplete ones. I do not mean incomplete in terms of production — because poor grammar or sloppy video editing will only distract from the story — but incomplete in terms of the redemptive story itself. Redemption hasn’t been fully realized in the Christian story of redemption yet; Christ is coming again. It makes sense, then, that our stories of redemption will reflect this incompletion.

The redemptive power of incomplete stories is twofold. First, incomplete stories are real. Life does not end for people, ministries, or movements when the story ends. Indicating this incompleteness is honest and should prevent Christians from chasing after “perfect” stories — where it seems God has resolved all of a person’s struggles and trials. That is not reality. If every testimony finishes neatly with a bow on top, then we are tilling the soil of people’s hearts and planting seeds of unrealistic expectations that may grow into weeds of doubt. People do not need complete stories that make them question why their life has not reached perfection. They need incomplete stories that point them to the One who is perfect.

Incomplete stories are also uniquely redemptive since they mirror the beautiful complexity of the Kingdom of God. In many ways, the Kingdom of God has already been initiated on this earth through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, but it has not yet fully arrived. The nations will rage and creation will groan until the second coming of Christ. The “already, but not yet” nature of the Kingdom can be difficult to communicate, which is why incomplete stories are so valuable. Telling stories in which God has already worked, but is not finished working, gives Christians a framework to understand how to be faithfully present while waiting for God to complete His work and story in the universe.

All stories matter. Each person’s story matters. And as a result, there are billions of redemptive stories to be told. The harvest is ripe.

This article was taken from the fourth volume of Faith and the Academy, a journal published by the Center for Apologetics and Cultural Engagement. Read more at this link .

An Amazing Story of Redemption and Restoration

But God still had a plan for Jeff. And he used Jeff’s aunt Marilyn and Amazing Facts to play a big role in his revival. For 35 years, Marilyn also had drifted away from God – she was a prodigal daughter. Her own father also died when she was in high school, so she had a special concern for Jeff. But she felt that God could not forgive her for the wrong things she had done and, sadly, she spent 35 years away from God.

But one day, Marilyn met a retired pastor and his wife who asked her if she knew of Doug Batchelor and Amazing Facts. She was invited to their home to watch Millennium of Prophecy and was given a copy of The Richest Caveman to read. Then it clicked. “If God can forgive Pastor Doug, he can forgive me!” And God could also forgive Jeff!

She rejoined the church and her thirsty soul began drinking in the Bible studies, books, videotapes, and television programs from Amazing Facts. She also began to pray for Jeff to give his life back to God.

She started sending Jeff books, magazines, and pamphlets – anything she could find – from Amazing Facts. She prayed for him fervently and sent him the Millennium of Prophecy videos, which he began to watch. During some of those literally “wasted” years, Jeff occasionally tuned in to watch one of our television broadcasts. Sometimes he was actually high on drugs while he watched, but Aunt Marilyn’s prayers were working. And God kept after him.

In 2005, Jeff ended up in prison. A conviction on DUI, an addiction to drugs – his life was headed south. And to make matters worse, Jeff’s mom informed him of her cancer. In Jeff’s mind, he was at the bottom. What more was there?

As Jeff’s aunt continued to pray, Jeff’s life began to take an unusual turn. Those little booklets and magazines he had been getting began to pique his interest and make more sense. So Jeff made a deal with God. He would yield his life to Christ if God would cure his mother. He got down on his knees and surrendered his life to God. Jeff’s mother had surgery, and today she has no signs of cancer. Doctors say there is no medical treatment that could explain her total healing. Jeff believes it was a miracle!

It is friends like you who made this impact on Jeff’s life possible through your support of our television programs, revivals, and publications. Jeff says that for many long years, it was Amazing Facts and Pastor Doug that played an enormous role in his coming back to Christ. “There aren’t any words that can express the impact both have had on my entire family! Pastor Doug’s testimony impacted me so much that I wanted to hear more, and when I did, I knew he was speaking from the Bible. He challenged me to look into the Word and decide for myself!”   The drugs are history. And he was baptized in the church. His life has been changed forever! And he credits it all to the power of Jesus Christ and the ministry of Amazing Facts. Now that’s revival!

This is just one example of the work God is doing through Amazing Facts. He is using your partnership to help change lives and touch families. And, as a faithful friend, you play a critical role in the life-changing process. Thank you for your gifts that make it possible to reach many more like Jeff and Marilyn with the powerful message of the gospel.

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10 of the Best Very Short Stories That Can Be Read Online

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

One very short story – often attributed to Ernest Hemingway but actually the work of another writer – is just six words long: ‘For sale: baby shoes, never worn’. And some of the greatest fiction-writers of the last two centuries have written memorable short stories which stretch to little more than a few pages: short enough to be read in a coffee break.

Below, we introduce ten classic short stories – very short stories – from some of the finest authors in the literary canon. All of the stories can be read online: follow the links provided to read them.

1. Anton Chekhov, ‘ The Student ’.

A key device in many Chekhov short stories is the epiphany : a sudden realisation or moment of enlightenment experienced by one of the story’s characters, usually the protagonist. In many ways, the epiphany can be said to perform a similar function to the plot twist or revelation at the end of a more traditional (i.e., plot-driven) short story.

In ‘The Student’, one of Chekhov’s shortest stories, a young seminary is travelling home on Good Friday. He meets two women, a mother and her daughter who have both been widowed, and joins them around their fire, and the conversation turns to the Gospels, since it is Easter.

The student begins telling them about the story of Peter’s denial of Jesus, and this tale reawakens painful memories in the two women. Here, the emphasis is more on character and emotion than plot and incident, as we discuss in our analysis of the story .

2. Kate Chopin, ‘ The Story of an Hour ’.

Some short stories can say all they need to do in just a few pages, and Kate Chopin’s three-page 1894 story ‘The Story of an Hour’ (sometimes known as ‘The Dream of an Hour’) is a classic example. Yet those three pages remain tantalisingly ambiguous, perhaps because so little is said, so much merely hinted at.

Chopin’s short story is a subtle, studied analysis of death, marriage, and personal wishes. Written in April 1894 and originally published in Vogue in December of that year, the story focuses on an hour in the life of a married woman who has just learnt that her husband has apparently died.

We have analysed this story here .

3. Saki, ‘ The Lumber-Room ’.

Saki, born Hector Hugh Munro, is one of the wittiest short-story writers in English, a missing link between Wilde and Wodehouse. Yet he remains undervalued.

‘The Lumber Room’ is a classic short story about a child who is too clever for the adults: a mischievous boy, Nicholas, seeks to outwit his aunt so he can gain access to the lumber-room with its hidden treasures and curiosities. The story is also about the nature of obedience and the limited view of the world adults have, when contrasted with the child’s more expansive and imaginative outlook.

We have analysed this wonderful story here .

4. Virginia Woolf, ‘ A Haunted House ’.

In the pioneering short stories Woolf wrote in the period from around 1917 until 1921, she not only developed her own ‘modernist’ voice but also offered a commentary on other literary forms and styles.

This two-page story is a good example: we find a woman living in a house which is apparently haunted by a ghostly couple. The story that emerges is less frightening than it is touching, and as much romance as horror, as Woolf provides a modernist, stream-of-consciousness take on the conventional ghost story, all in a brief vignette of around 600 words.

We have analysed the story here .

5. Franz Kafka, ‘ Before the Law ’.

This is a very short story or parable by the German-language Bohemian (now Czech) author Franz Kafka (1883-1924). It was published in 1915 and later included in Kafka’s (posthumously published) novel The Trial , where its meaning is discussed by the protagonist Josef K. and a priest he meets in a cathedral. ‘Before the Law’ has inspired numerous critical interpretations and prompted many a debate, in its turn, about what it means.

A man approaches a doorkeeper and asks to be admitted to ‘the law’. The doorkeeper tells him he cannot grant him access, but that it may be possible to admit the man later. We won’t say what happens next, but the parable is typically Kafkaesque – in so far as anything else – in its comic absurdism and depiction of the futility of human endeavour. The story is often interpreted as a tale about religion.

We discuss the story in more depth in our summary and analysis of it.

6. Katherine Mansfield, ‘ Miss Brill ’.

‘Miss Brill’ is a short story by the New-Zealand-born modernist writer Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923), published in the Athenaeum in 1920 and then included in Mansfield’s 1922 collection The Garden Party and Other Stories .

Every Sunday, a lady named Miss Brill goes to the local public gardens to hear the band play and to sit in the gardens and people-watch. On the particular Sunday that is the focus of the story, the unmarried Miss Brill comes to realise that she, and all of the other people gathered in the gardens, appear to be in a sort of play. But when she overhears a young couple making apparently disparaging remarks about her, she appears to undergo an epiphany …

We discuss the story in more detail in our analysis of it.

7. Ernest Hemingway, ‘ Cat in the Rain ’.

This short tale was published in Hemingway’s early 1925 collection In Our Time ; he wrote ‘Cat in the Rain’ for his wife Hadley while they were living in Paris. She wanted to get a cat, but he said they were too poor.

‘Cat in the Rain’ was supposedly inspired by a specific event in 1923 when, while staying at the home of Ezra Pound (a famous cat-lover) in Rapallo, Italy, Hadley befriended a stray kitten. We find a woman in a hotel seeking to rescue a cat she spots in the rain outside, but the story takes in deeper longings, too.

We have offered an analysis of this story in a separate post.

8. Jorge Luis Borges, ‘ The Lottery in Babylon ’.

The Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges is one of the great short-fiction writers of the twentieth century, and many of his classic tales stretch to just a few pages.

‘The Lottery in Babylon’, first published in 1941, is among his most ‘Kafkaesque’ tales. When he wrote the story, Borges was working a rather unfulfilling library job refilling the bookshelves, and ‘The Lottery in Babylon’ reflects the sense of futility in all human endeavour which Borges was feeling at this time. We are told of a lottery in the (fictional) land of Babylon, which becomes compulsory, and which delivers both rewards and punishments to its lucky (or unlucky) participants. Although Borges’ story is satirical and humorous, it also taps into the horrific realities of totalitarian regimes.

Find out more about this story by reading our analysis of it .

9. Lydia Davis, ‘ On the Train ’.

Very few stories in The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis are longer than a few pages, and many are a single page, like prose haiku or short vignettes. Her stories are usually less about narrative and more about observation, seemingly insignificant details, and a refusal to sentimentalise. Indeed, her stories are almost clinical in their precision and emotional tautness.

We’ve opted for ‘On the Train’ as it’s one of the few Davis stories available online via the link above, but we could have chosen any number of short stories from the collected edition mentioned above. Highly recommended.

10. David Foster Wallace, ‘ A Radically Condensed History of Postindustrial Life ’.

This is the shortest story on this list. Published on ‘page zero’ of Wallace’s 2000 collection Brief Interviews with Hideous Men , it is another vignette, about how the way we behave is ultimately motivated by our longing to be liked by others.

The rise of social media has only brought home even more clearly what Wallace brilliantly and wittily reveals here: that much of our behaviour is purely performative, with the individual having lost any sense of authenticity or true identity.

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One day in April— a clear, blue day when there were crocuses in bloom—Jack Hawthorne ran over and killed his brother, David. Even at the last moment he could have prevented his brother’s death by slamming on the tractor brakes, easily in reach for all the shortness of his legs; but he was unable to think, or, rather, thought unclearly, and so watched it happen, as he would again and again watch it happen in his mind, with nearly undiminished intensity and clarity, all his life. The younger brother was riding, as both of them knew he should not have been, on the cultipacker, a two-ton implement lumbering behind the tractor, crushing new-plowed ground. Jack was twelve, his brother, David, seven. The scream came not from David, who never got a sound out, but from their five-year-old sister, who was riding on the fender of the tractor, looking back. When Jack turned to look, the huge iron wheels had reached his brother’s pelvis. He kept driving, reacting as he would to a half-crushed farm animal, and imagining, in the same stab of thought, that perhaps his brother would survive. Blood poured from David’s mouth.

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Redemption and forgiveness go hand-in-hand, and many books do a fine job of exploring these two themes. Here, you’ll find books featuring convicts and murderers who go out of their way to redeem themselves. In another book, you’ll meet a coward who is seeking forgiveness by helping those he once failed to protect. You’ll also come across rich landlords, terrorists, Nazis and even a young girl looking for redemption. These books about redemption are sure to touch your heart.

As a young boy, Nirbhay had the annoying habit of waking up at 5 a.m. Since television was a big no-no, he had no choice but to read to entertain himself and that is how his love affair with books began. A true-blue Piscean, books paved the path to his fantasy worlds- worlds he’d often rather stay in. Nirbhay is the co-founder and publisher of The Curious Reader.

You can read his articles, here .

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5 Amazing Bible Stories of Redemption

5 Amazing Bible Stories of Redemption…

We’ve all been there, feeling guilty for having sinned against God.

Feeling tired of saying sorry to Him but committing the same sins over and over again. We beat ourselves up and think of thoughts not according to the will of God.

Then the enemy attacks us by using our own thoughts to condemn us.

As much as we don’t want to, we will make mistakes. Unfortunately, we will commit sin. We will break God’s heart again and again. We will repent, then break His heart again.

That’s the reality as long as we are human and living in our earthly bodies. No one is perfect. 

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. – Romans 3:23

But the awesome thing about God is He forgives us if we repent wholeheartedly (but we should not use this as an excuse to willfully sin and disobey Him time and time again).

The good news is… It’s not too late for God to work wonders through you. He is not limited by anything at all – even our sins – in accomplishing His plans for us.

Need proof? Let me tell you five Bible stories about 5 men of God who have committed unspeakable acts of evil and how God turned their life around…

We all know David as the man who slayed the giant Goliath and the “man after God’s own heart”.

On the other hand, in the book of 2 Samuel chapter 11, we learn about how King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and how he had Uriah (Bathsheba’s husband) killed.

Before he was called to be God’s apostle, Saul of Tarsus was one of the great persecutors of Christians.

He went from one house to another, dragging believers on their feet on the way to the prison. He was also present during the stoning of Stephen, who is believed to be the first Christian martyr.

For these reasons, Paul called himself “chief of sinners”.

Moses committed murder before God called him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

This was illustrated to us in the book of Exodus chapter 2.

He saw an Egyptian who was hitting his Hebrew brothers so he got even by killing him and hiding him in the sand, then he escaped.

He was that guy who spent three days and three nights in the belly of a big fish because of his disobedience to God.

God commanded Jonah to preach to Nineveh but instead of following God’s direct order, he rode a ship to Tarshish so he can run from God (as if it were possible).

The son of King David was famous for his wisdom and his riches.

But he disobeyed God by allowing his 700 wives and 300 concubines lead him to worship idols.

These five great men of God all have disobeyed God’s laws. But then after further reading and study, we learned that they all repented and they were used mightily for God’s glory.

Does that mean we should continue sinning since we can repent afterwards and be forgiven? As Apostle Paul stated in Romans 6:1-2 , certainly not!

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?   2  By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?  

When we sin, God is gracious enough to forgive us but our disobedience has consequences.

Consequences of our sin

What amazes me most is that even as we deal with the consequences of our sins, God is with us. He gives us the grace to move forward.

It was even declared in Romans 8:28 that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

So the next time the enemy reminds you of the sins you have committed, throw him this verse from Galatians 2:20 :  

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. “

We are imperfect people loved by a perfect God. Our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ paid it all on the cross.

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Preferred Stories: Redemption as a Cultural Master Narrative

Preferred storytellers: evaluations of redemptive narrators, present studies, methods studies 1 and 2, limitations and conclusions, data accessibility statement, acknowledgments, funding information, competing interests, author contributions, peer review comments, redemptive stories and those who tell them are preferred in the u.s.

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Kate C. McLean , Brianna C. Delker , William L. Dunlop , Rowan Salton , Moin Syed; Redemptive Stories and Those Who Tell Them are Preferred in the U.S. Collabra: Psychology 1 January 2020; 6 (1): 39. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.369

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The present studies examined the common, but untested, theoretical assumption that those in the United States prefer negative past experiences, such as trauma, to be redeemed, to be resolved in some positive or growth-promoting fashion. Narratives of six types of traumatic events were rated by U.S adults ( n = 1872) across six samples and two studies. Confirming pre-registered hypotheses, there was a reliable preference for stories that were redeemed compared to stories that ended negatively, as well as for the narrators of redemptive stories, who were judged as likable and to have desirable personality traits. There was no support for the hypothesis that redemptive stories would be viewed as more common than non-redemptive stories, or that the relation between story type and preference would be mediated by Belief in a Just World. Implications include the compulsory nature of storying trauma and potential risks of these cultural expectations.

The concept of redemption – when a challenging, negative, or traumatic experience is narrated in a way that communicates growth, meaning-made, or resolution – is perhaps the most commonly studied construct in the field of narrative identity (e.g., McAdams, 2006 ; McAdams & McLean, 2013 ; McAdams & Pals, 2006 ). This is for two primary reasons. First, it is a construct reliably associated with psychological health and well-being (see Adler, Lodi-Smith, Philippe, & Houle, 2016 for a review). Second, it has such a strong relationship to the construction of personal identity narratives that it has been termed a cultural master narrative – a group-level narrative that guides personal story construction ( Hammack, 2008 ; McAdams, 2006 ; McLean & Syed, 2015 ). This means that there is a clear assumption that this story structure is a preferred story, or a ‘good’ story, at least within mainstream culture of the United States (U.S.). However, this claim, on which much of the extant empirical work rests, has yet to be tested. Testing that claim – that those in the U.S. prefer and positively evaluate redemptive stories and those who tell them – was the aim of the current project. Below we review the scholarship on redemption that guides the present endeavor.

The concept of redemption as a master narrative is firmly rooted in an analysis of U.S. history and values ( McAdams, 2006 ). Using cultural resources (e.g., movies, books) and historical documents (e.g., Gettysburg address, spiritual autobiographies, slave narratives, religious texts), McAdams ( 2006 ) has argued that those in the U.S. prefer redemptive stories due to their salience throughout U.S. history and the ways in which redemption reflects persistent values in the U.S., such as individualism, grit, and a ‘bootstraps’ mentality (see also McLean & Syed, 2015 ). These stories of good persevering over evil, emancipation, and growth are believed to resonate with those in the U.S. – at least that is the pervasive claim ( McAdams, 2006 ; 2008 ; McAdams & McLean, 2013 ; McLean & Syed, 2015 ).

The argument that redemption is a narrative that resonates with those in the U.S. is consistent with the notion that cultures communicate certain master narratives , which guide the individual’s personal story construction. These master narratives dictate the kinds of stories that are valued and deemed appropriate for members of a particular culture to tell ( McLean & Syed, 2015 ). They are also viewed as culturally ubiquitous ( McLean & Syed, 2015 ), infusing narratives from movies to personal stories to historical documents, as McAdams ( 2006 ) has documented.

However, master narratives not only support and guide the construction of personal stories, they are also constraining in their prescription of the ‘good’ story ( McLean & Syed, 2015 ). This is particularly problematic for those whose stories do not align with these prescriptions. For example, those who do not tell culturally sanctioned stories may be disenfranchised, unheard, or marginalized (e.g., McLean, Lilgendahl, Fordham, Alpert, Marsden, Szymanowski, & McAdams, 2017 ).

Experiencing trauma, an event that has the opportunity for narrative redemption, may pose special challenges to this prescription for redemption. By their very nature, traumatic events can be “unspeakable” in that they test the “just world” assumption that the world is a safe place where good things happen to good people ( Furnham, 2003 ; see also Fivush, 2010 ). For the person who has experienced trauma, the possibility for a ‘double trauma’ exists with the coupling of the original experience and the potential for being unheard or rebuked if one’s story is not redeemed. Further, an audience bearing witness to any traumatic story may experience distress, and a redemptive ending may restore the notion that the world is safe and fair, resulting in a preference for such endings. Thus, understanding the degree to which redemptive stories are preferred may shed light on the role of interpersonal and cultural processes that may silence stories that do not align with this master narrative.

Substantial work has shown that those who tell more redemptive personal stories (compared to stories with negative endings) have better psychological functioning concurrently, and over time. For example, those with more redemptive stories are more likely to meet salient developmental tasks such as generativity ( McAdams & Guo, 2015 ) and identity formation ( McLean & Pratt, 2006 ). Those who narrate life story scenes with themes of redemption show increasing mental health after experiencing health challenges compared to those who do not (Adler et al., 2015). Those who made positive meaning of life low points experienced better emotion regulation two years later compared to those who did not ( Cox & McAdams, 2014 ). Finally, those who narrated the experience of their last drink with redemption were more likely to maintain sobriety over a subsequent four-month period ( Dunlop & Tracy, 2013 ). Based on this work (see Adler et al. 2014 for a comprehensive review), we expect that adults in the U.S. will evaluate the narrators of redemptive stories as higher functioning (e.g., psychologically healthier and happier) than the narrators of the same stories that end negatively. The implication of this is important given the interpersonal nature of storytelling – not telling the ‘right’ story could have serious interpersonal consequences.

Our approach is novel in that much of the prior work has evaluated whether personal stories are redemptive. However, in order to test the assumed preference for redemption, our questions centered not on individual storytellers, but on the evaluation of their stories.

Our aim was to examine whether there was empirical support for the pervasive assumption that redemption is a preferred structure for narrating trauma, a cultural master narrative. Using the master narrative framework, we hypothesized that redemption would manifest as the ‘good’ way to story trauma, such that stories and storytellers that align with the redemptive story structure will be evaluated more positively, and that such stories would also be viewed as common ( McLean & Syed, 2015 ).

We also examined one potential mechanism for this preference for redemption – Belief in a Just World ( Furnham, 2003 ). Given the expectation that the world is fair and that good things happen to good people, traumatic events pose a challenge. The redemption of a trauma may preserve the sense that there is justice in the world because lemonade can come from lemons. In short, the preference for redemption may be driven in part by a desire to right an inexplicable wrong by employing a narrative strategy that restores order. We test this mediator using the measurement-of-mediator approach, which is fundamentally an observational analysis and thus speaks to statistical mediation vs. causal mediation ( Bullock et al. 2010 ; Pirlott & MacKinnon, 2016 ).

Given individual differences in the propensity to desire closure for negative events, and to experience and focus on negative affect, we considered Neuroticism and Need for Closure as control variables. We wanted to test whether story perceptions were consistently rated above and beyond these individual differences that may be related to emotional aspects of story perception (e.g., Lilgendahl & McAdams, 2011 ; Lilgendahl & McLean, 2019 ).

In a set of vignette-based studies, we tested the theoretical assumption that redemption is a preferred master narrative, taking several steps to examine this claim in breadth. First, as can be seen from the work described above, redemption has been shown to be important across a variety of types of life experiences, so we included multiple types of traumas. We constructed six different narratives of varied types of traumatic events that were acute and impersonal (natural disaster, car accident), chronic and impersonal (childhood chronic illness), chronic and personal (childhood sexual abuse), and acute and personal (adult sexual assault, traumatic loss). For each story we developed different types of endings. For example, we had an identical story about a car accident, but created different endings for that event. We take up the issue of the role of event type in more detail elsewhere ( Delker, Salton, McLean, & Syed, 2020 ), but here we expect the preference for redemptive stories, and their narrators, to be robust across types of trauma. Second, to determine the degree to which these preferences were robust across stories and participants we examined ratings both between-, and within-participants. Finally, we also recruited participants across a range of platforms in order to test the breadth of the effects.

Our hypotheses follow, and were pre-registered at https://osf.io/ter62/ , where all materials, de-identified datasets, and scripts can be found.

H1. Story Preference

Participants will evaluate stories with redemptive endings to be more positive compared to stories with negative endings, even when controlling for constructs that might impact the desire for positive resolution, namely neuroticism and need for closure.

H2. Personal Preference

We expect stories with redemptive endings to be rated as more personally preferable overall compared to stories with negative endings.

H3. Narrative Ubiquity

Given claims that master narratives are in part defined by their ubiquity, we hypothesized that participants would rate stories with redemptive endings as more common than stories with negative endings.

H4. Narrator Preference

Participants will evaluate the ‘narrators’ of stories with redemptive endings more positively than the ‘narrators’ of stories with negative endings.

H5. Belief in a Just World

The relation between story ending and story ratings will be mediated by Belief in a Just World.

The full details of our pilot study can be found at https://osf.io/ter62/ . The aim of this study was to establish that the narratives we had created were evaluated as negative events, and that the endings were distinct. Participants rated six events in terms of the emotional valence of the overall event and the ending valence (negative, neutral, positive), and the degree to which it was redemptive. We tested six types of events (natural disaster, car accident, traumatic loss, stranger sexual assault, childhood sexual abuse, childhood chronic illness), and four different types of endings (negative, neutral, redemptive, survivor identity). For the purposes of another study we created two different types of redemptive endings – ‘simple’ redemption and what we called ‘survivor identity’. For purposes of the present project, we combined these two endings (see Delker et al., 2020 ). 1 The events were all rated as negative, and the endings that we intended to be negative and redemptive were rated as expected. However, the stories we intended to be neutral in ending were much more variable, and were generally rated more negatively than anticipated. Thus, we proceeded with only testing the stories rated as negative and redemptive in their endings.

Ethical review boards at two different institutions approved Studies 1 and 2 (Institutions and Protocol Numbers Masked for Blind Review).

We tested our hypotheses with a between-subjects (Study 1) and within-subjects (Study 2) design, using three samples per study ( k = 6 samples total). The materials were identical for both Study 1 and Study 2, and for each sample, so we combine the methods and results of these two studies and six samples for efficiency.

Participants

See Tables 1a , 1b , 1c for participant characteristics ( n = 1872) and exclusion numbers. We intentionally recruited from two quite different universities – both public, but differing in size and location (Pacific Northwest and upper Midwest) – as well as two different online platforms (Mturk – Study 1; Qualtrics – Study 2) in order to obtain a broad and diverse group of participants.

Demographic Characteristics of Study 1 Participants.

Note : **** denotes participants who provided a race not represented by the available categories, or two or more races. Total n (%) of race items do not add up to 100% because participants could select more than one.

Demographic Characteristics of Study 2 Participants.

Reason for Excluding Cases from Analysis by Study and Site of Data Collection.

Our decisions regarding sample size were based on our pilot data (see https://osf.io/ter62/ ), and the expectation of large effects due to the large differences between conditions and the high likelihood that they would be interpreted differently. The expectation of large effects was confirmed by the pilot study, and thus carried forward to the primary studies.

Procedure and Design

This survey-based study was administered online using Qualtrics and took approximately one hour to complete. Participants recruited through both MTurk and Qualtrics online panels self-selected to participate in the study titled “Evaluating Stories” for financial compensation upon the completion of the surveys, and if they passed the validity check questions. Compensation was $2 or $4 on Mturk, 2 and was determined individually for each participant by Qualtrics for that panel. Students from the two universities were recruited through an undergraduate research pool, and were compensated with course credit. All participants provided informed consent electronically.

Participants evaluated the vignettes described in the pilot methods, followed by additional surveys, described below. Materials were identical for Studies 1 and 2, but the design differed. Study 1 was between-subjects design, with participants rating each of the six trauma vignettes with a randomized ending for each vignette. Study 2 was a within-subjects design, with participants rating all six trauma vignettes, but with only one ending type.

Vignettes and Evaluation

Participants read the six different vignettes described in the pilot methods with three different endings – negative, redemptive, survivor ending (with the latter two combined for analyses of effect sizes). Here we describe the ratings used to test our hypotheses. Full materials can be found at https://osf.io/ter62/ , including the full set of items for the following scales (Table S1) and estimates of internal consistency for each scale by prompt and data set (Table S2).

Story Preference was assessed with one item to evaluate the valence: “How positive or negative was this event overall?” (1 = totally negative to 7 = totally positive ).

Personal Preference was assessed with responses to four statements, such as, “I enjoyed reading this story” (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree ; Cronbach’s alphas = .87–.95).

Narrative Ubiquity was assessed with responses to two statements regarding the commonality of the story, such as “This is a common story” (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree ; Pearson’s r = .42–.72).

Narrator Preference was assessed with responses to five statements evaluating the author of the story, such as “I would like to get to know this author” (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree ; Cronbach’s alphas = .68–.87). For an exploratory analysis, participants rated the ‘narrators’ of the stories for the Big Five traits, adapting the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI: Gosling, Rentfrow, & Swann, 2003 ), with questions such as “This person is extraverted and enthusiastic” (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). Two items were rated for each of the Big Five traits (extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness), with one positive item and one negative item for each scale (items and reliabilities reported in Tables S1 and S2).

Control Variables: Neuroticism and Need for Closure

Following ratings of the vignettes, participants completed two control measures. Participants completed the Big Five Inventory-2, a 60-item measure of personality traits ( Soto & John, 2017 ), using a five-point scale (1 = disagree strongly to 5 = agree strongly ). The 12-item neuroticism subscale was used as a control measure (Cronbach’s alphas = .85–94). Additionally, participants completed the 15-item Need for Closure scale ( Roets & Van Hiel, 2011 ; 1 = strongly disagree to 6 = strongly agree ; Cronbach’s alphas = .83–92).

Mediator: Belief in a Just World

Participants also completed an eight-item measure of Belief in a Just World ( Lucas, Zhdanova, & Alexander, 2011 ; 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree; Cronbach’s alphas = .89–96).

The final block of questions included demographics.

Analysis Plan

All analyses were conducted separately for each of the six event types within each of the six samples. This led to 18 individual tests of each hypothesis within each study, conducted via ANOVAs in SPSS v. 24.0 ( IBM Corp, 2016 ; more details below for each test). The assessment of the support for the hypotheses was determined based on the meta-analytic summary of the 18 tests within each study. Cohen’s d was calculated for the mean difference between the redemptive endings and the negative endings for each event type in R 3.6.1 ( R Core Team, 2019 ) with the MBESS package ( v.4.6.0 , Kelley, 2019 ). These d s were subject to the meta-analysis to determine an estimate and range that was used to evaluate the hypothesis. Thus, although there are numerous individual tests of each hypothesis, only the two meta-analytic estimates were used for evaluating the hypotheses (one for each study). 95% confidence intervals are reported with each test to provide an indicator of precision of the effect size estimate. The meta-analyses were conducted using the R package metafor ( v.2.1 , Viechtbauer, 2010 ). We had preregistered that we would use a fixed effects meta-analysis because all of the studies represented a test of the hypothesis from the same population and we did not seek to test for moderators. However, instead we report analyses of multi-level random effects meta-analyses in order to account for the dependencies among the effects sizes. The point estimates are nearly identical using both methods, but the confidence intervals are wider in the random effects models. Results from the fixed effects models are available on the OSF page. Forest plots were created using the R package ggplot2 ( v.3.2.0 , Wickham 2016 ). Although the purpose of the present study was not to investigate variations in effect sizes across the different samples or story prompts, in Table S3 we report indices of heterogeneity (Q, I 2 , and tau) for the curious reader. All primary analyses were preregistered on OSF. Any exploratory analysis that was not preregistered is marked as such in the text below. Means, standard deviations, and correlations for all variables and data sets are available in Table S4.

Hypothesis 1. Story Preference: Stories that are redemptive will be rated more positively compared to stories with negative endings

This hypothesis was tested via one-way between-subjects ANOVAs, each examining mean differences in positive story ratings for the six event types. Results clearly indicated substantial mean differences in positivity ratings between redemptive/survivor vs. negative endings, 3 with all 18 effect sizes exceeding d = 1.0 (see Table 2 , Figure 1 ). Indeed, the meta-analytic test provided strong support for the hypothesis, d = 1.83, (1.59, 2.08).

Descriptive Statistics and Effect Sizes for Study 1 Hypothesis 1: Differences in Positivity Ratings.

1 Cohen’s d based on comparison of the combined Redemptive/Survivor endings to the Negative endings.

Forest plot for Hypothesis 1.

Hypothesis 1a stated that the difference observed in Hypothesis 1 would remain after controlling for neuroticism and need for closure. This hypothesis was supported, with the effect sizes virtually unchanged by the inclusion of these covariates (Table S5).

Hypothesis 1 in Study 2 was tested by a 3 (ending) × 6 (event) mixed ANOVA with ending as the between-subjects factor and event as the repeated within-subjects factor. Positivity ratings of the stories was the dependent variable. For this hypothesis the between-subjects main effect was the target analysis; specifically, the between-subjects contrast between redemptive/survivor endings and negative endings. Consistent with Study 2, the meta-analytic effect size across the 18 effects indicated strong support for the hypothesis, d = 1.81, (1.45, 2.12) (Table 3 and Figure 1 ). Moreover, controlling for neuroticism and need for closure did not alter the effects (Table S5).

Descriptive Statistics and Effect Sizes for Study 2 Hypothesis 1: Differences in Positivity Ratings.

Hypothesis 2. Personal Preference: Stories with redemptive endings will be rated as more personally preferable compared to stories with negative endings

This hypothesis was tested via one-way between-subjects ANOVAs, each examining mean differences in personal preference ratings for the six event types. Again, effect sizes were large and consistent, with the meta-analytic estimate providing strong support for the hypothesis, d = 1.62 (1.34, 1.90) (Table 4 and Figure 2 ).

Descriptive Statistics and Effect Sizes for Study 1 Hypothesis 2: Differences in Personal Story Preference.

Forest plot for Hypothesis 2.

This hypothesis was tested by a 3 (ending) × 6 (event) mixed ANOVA with ending as the between-subjects factor and event as the repeated within-subjects factor. Personal preference ratings of the stories was the dependent variable, with the between-subjects contrast between redemptive/survivor endings and negative endings as the focal analysis. Consistent with Study 1, the meta-analytic effect size indicated strong support for the hypothesis, d = 1.34 (1.16, 1.52) (Table 5 and Figure 2 ).

Descriptive Statistics and Effect Sizes for Study 2 Hypothesis 2: Differences in Personal Story Preference.

Hypothesis 3. Narrative Ubiquity: Redemptive stories will be rated as more common and frequently heard compared to stories with negative endings

This hypothesis was tested via one-way between-subjects ANOVAs, each examining mean differences in perceived commonality ratings for the six event types. Effect sizes were generally uniformly small and danced around either side of zero. Consistent with this, the meta-analytic estimate did not provide support for the hypothesis, d = –0.01 (–0.11, 0.08) (Table 6 and Figure 3 ).

Descriptive Statistics and Effect Sizes for Study 1 Hypothesis 3: Differences in Narrative Ubiquity.

Forest plot for Hypothesis 3.

This hypothesis was tested by a 3 (ending) × 6 (event) mixed ANOVA with ending as the between-subjects factor and event as the repeated within-subjects factor. Perceived commonality ratings of the stories was the dependent variable, with the between-subjects contrast between redemptive/survivor endings and negative endings as the focal analysis. Results mirrored Study 1, indicating no support for the hypothesis, d = –0.001 (–0.20, 0.20) (Table 7 and Figure 3 ).

Descriptive Statistics and Effect Sizes for Study 2 Hypothesis 3: Differences in Narrative Ubiquity.

Hypothesis 4. Narrator Preference: ‘Narrators’ of redemptive stories will be rated more positively than the ‘narrators’ of stories with negative endings

This hypothesis was tested via one-way between-subjects ANOVAs, each examining mean differences in author preference ratings for the six event types. Effect sizes were large and consistent, with the meta-analytic estimate providing strong support for the hypothesis, d = 1.30 (1.15, 1.46) (Table 8 and Figure 4 ).

Descriptive Statistics and Effect Sizes for Study 1 Hypothesis 4: Differences in Narrator Preference.

Forest plot for Hypothesis 4.

This hypothesis was tested by a 3 (ending) × 6 (event) mixed ANOVA with ending as the between-subjects factor and event as the repeated within-subjects factor. Narrator preference ratings of the stories was the dependent variable, with the between-subjects contrast between redemptive/survivor endings and negative endings as the focal analysis. Results once again provided strong support for the hypothesis, d = 1.05 (0.77, 1.32) (Table 9 and Figure 4 ).

Descriptive Statistics and Effect Sizes for Study 2 Hypothesis 4: Differences in Narrator Preference.

Alternative Test of Hypothesis 4

A preregistered exploratory and alternative test of Hypothesis 4 involved participants’ ratings of the authors with respect to the Big Five personality traits. Meta-analyses indicated consistently moderate to large effects wherein authors of redemptive stories were rated more highly in extraversion (Study 1, d = 1.09 [0.91, 1.27]; Study 2, d = 1.81 [1.45, 2.17]), agreeableness (Study 1, d = 0.67 [0.55, 0.80]; Study 2, d = 0.61 [0.43, 0.78]), conscientiousness (Study 1, d = 0.65 [0.58, 0.72]; Study 2, d = 0.50 [0.44, 0.57]), emotional stability (Study 1, d = 1.45 [1.25, 1.66]; Study 2, d = 1.04 [0.84, 1.24]), and openness (Study 1, d = 0.71 [0.63, 0.80]; Study 2, d = 0.55 [0.36, 0.74]) in comparison to authors of negative stories (Tables S6 and S7).

Hypothesis 5. Belief in a Just World: Belief in a Just World will Mediate the Differences Tested in Hypotheses 1–4

To test Hypothesis 5 we re-ran the ANOVAs from Hypotheses 1–4 as ANCOVAs controlling for Belief in a Just World. Across five hypothesis, six events, three samples, and two studies—leading to 144 tests overall—the difference in effect size associated with story ending between the original ANOVA and the ANCOVAs was most often zero and never more than negligible (Table 10 ). Thus, we did not find support for Hypothesis 5.

Results for Hypothesis 5 showing no differences in Effect Sizes when Including Belief in a Just World as a Mediator.

Note : Δη 2 is the effect size for the model with Belief in a Just World controlled minus the model without the control. H = Hypothesis.

We followed the same approach as with Study 1 and once again did not find any evidence to support the hypothesis (Table 10 ).

Unregistered Exploratory Analysis

Because of the cultural nature of redemptive storytelling it is possible that individuals not born in the U.S. will have different patterns of responses to the different story endings. The current study was not designed to test this hypothesis, and thus did not intentionally recruit a sufficient number of participants born outside the U.S. Nevertheless, as a sensitivity analysis we re-ran Hypotheses 1–4 after removing the small number of non-U.S. born participants. These models yielded results substantively identical to the original (Table S8).

An alternative to Hypothesis 5 is that rather than serving as a mediator, Belief in a Just World may be a moderator between ending type and story ratings. As with the test of Hypothesis 5, we re-ran the ANOVAs from Hypotheses 1–4, this time including Belief in a Just World as a moderator of ending type. Across 144 tests only 9 of the tests (6%) were statistically significant, and even those were inconsistent across study, hypothesis, and prompt (Table S9). Accordingly, we did not find evidence to support Belief in a Just World as a moderator.

The assumption that those in the U.S. prefer stories of trauma to be redeemed seems obvious and intuitive, but this common assumption has never been empirically tested. Overall, we found strong support for this pervasive, but untested, theoretical claim across multiple types of traumatic events, even after controlling for neuroticism and need for closure, and these findings were robust across two evaluative conditions (between- and within-subjects designs). This trend was seen in the ratings of positivity and the personal preference for these stories, as well as in the positive evaluation of the narrators. Unexpectedly, we did not find that redemption was perceived as more common, or that the relation between story endings and ratings was mediated – or moderated – by Belief in a Just World. We review the results and implications below.

Supported Hypotheses

Overall, the broad range of participants across these samples reported that traumatic stories that were redeemed were perceived as more positive and preferable than those with negative endings. Participants also perceived the ‘narrators’ of these studies as healthier and to have more adaptive personality traits. This is consistent with recent work showing that midlife adults who have more redemptive life stories scored higher on more adaptive personality traits (higher on agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extraversion, and lower on neuroticism) compared to those with less redemptive life stories ( Guo, Klevan, & McAdams, 2016 ). The effect sizes observed in all of these analyses were large, much larger than is typically seen in personality research (e.g., Roberts, Kuncel, Shiner, Caspi, & Goldberg, 2007 ). These large evaluative effects were obtained by simply changing how the story ended with respect to the narrators’ feelings and growth. Results like this raise an interesting question regarding the established finding that those who redeem their negative experiences are also more psychologically healthy (e.g., Adler et al., 2016 ; McAdams et al., 2001). It has been assumed that the primary explanation for this association is that there is something inherently beneficial about redemption as a way to make meaning of challenging experiences (e.g., McAdams et al., 2001). However, it might also be the case that telling such stories allows for a feeling of interpersonal validation and connection, which explains positive psychological functioning.

Beyond confirming theoretical propositions, these results illuminate the potential for real challenge during the process of sharing stories that do not align with expectations. First, in contexts of interpersonal storytelling, as well as therapeutic contexts, someone who does not redeem trauma may be unheard, devalued, or isolated. These individuals may also be the most in need of support to promote recovery, but if both their stories and their selves are viewed less positively, they may the least likely to receive that needed support. Second, the pressure to conform to cultural master narratives may result in some people not telling fully authentic stories, limiting our ability to truly know each other, one of the hallmark functions of personal storytelling ( McAdams, 1995 ). Finally, at the most global level, the preference for the redemption of trauma may create expectations that trauma is always redeemable by the individual, leaving the larger collective social and political responsibility to address and prevent trauma unaddressed.

Indeed, although not the focus here (see Delker et al., 2020 ), there are some hints that some stories may be especially hard to tell, even when they are redeemed. The stories of childhood sexual abuse and adult sexual assault were rated less positively than other stories even when they were redeemed. Given the prevalence of such experiences ( Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019 ), it is important to consider the cultural and interpersonal messages that might impact the ability to share one’s story, as well as the larger responsibility for managing (and preventing) such traumas ( Delker, Salton, & McLean, 2019 ; Delker et al., 2020 ).

Unsupported Hypotheses

We did not find that redemptive stories were viewed as particularly common. This was unexpected, and there are several possibilities in interpreting this hypothesis. The first is that redemption is not a master narrative. McLean and Syed ( 2015 ) pointed to the importance of ‘air time’ in determining master narratives – that is, those stories that are heard and told frequently are more likely to serve as master narratives (see also McLean, Fordham, Boggs, Byers, Haraldsson, Lowe, & Syed, 2019 ; McLean, Shucard, & Syed, 2017 ). If this proposition is true, then these results suggest that redemption is not a master narrative. However, our other results concerning the preference for different types of stories provide support for the notion that redemption is a master narrative. Thus, one possibility is that there may be a range to how much a particular narrative serves as a master narrative, and redemption may only hit some of the key principles identified by McLean and Syed ( 2015 ).

An alternative interpretation is that frequency may not be key in determining a master narrative. Given the findings that narrators of redemptive stories are perceived more positively, perhaps a more central ingredient to determining master narratives is not how often they are told, but who is telling the stories and how they, in turn, are perceived. This interpretation is consistent with the idea that those in certain positions of power (in this case those who are liked, viewed as healthy) have greater influence on determining or communicating what the ‘right’ or ‘good’ story is ( McLean & Syed, 2015 ). Indeed, there exists a ‘prestige bias’ such that norms are not defined by their commonality, but by what is transmitted by those with greater prestige ( Henrich, Boyd, & Richerson, 2008 ).

It is also possible that not all of our hypotheses were supported because we are examining something live and dynamic – culture. Indeed, cultural norms and expectations about how to tell stories of trauma could be shifting. For example, those in positions of power may still be emphasizing the status quo, and those in marginalized and/or minority groups may see a different story to tell, perhaps one that emphasizes struggle and work to be done, rather than neat resolutions that negate the need for change (e.g., Eibach & Ehrlinger, 2006). Examining how these stories are perceived by people in different positions of power is an important next step.

Finally, although McLean and Syed ( 2015 ) proposed the principles for defining master narratives, there is not an agreed upon method of determining if a story is a master narrative. We examined prevalence of stories, but others have examined associations between story types and well-being, with the assumption that story types associated with higher well-being are more likely to be master narratives (e.g., Eriksson, McLean, & Frisén, 2020 ). Finally, our measure of narrative ubiquity may not have been optimal. The measure only consisted of two items asking whether the story was common, not whether the ending was common. Either way, such questions may be difficult to answer, and we encourage researchers to consider more novel ways of testing this hypothesis. In short, master narratives are a complex phenomenon and data like those presented here add to the methodological toolbox and discussion of how best to examine these dynamic cultural stories.

We also did not find support for Belief in a Just World as a mediator of relations between story ending and preferences for stories and ‘narrators,’ nor did we find support for it as a moderator in the exploratory analyses. Given the consistent replication of these null finding, we think it is safe to say that Belief in a Just World does not serve as a mediator or moderator, at least as measured with this scale. Perhaps the preference findings indicate that the response to redemption is about managing listeners’ own emotional reaction to the stories, making them feel better about themselves or feel better for the teller, rather than restoring a more abstract schema about the way the world operates. In hindsight, this hypothesis may not have been well thought-out. Although individual differences can be mediators of experimental manipulations ( Pirlott & MacKinnon, 2016 ), this situation is difficult to justify, and even so, we should have used a state rather than trait measure of Belief in a Just World.

Despite the strengths of our large and varied samples and robust replication, we do raise some limitations. First, we have some concepts measured with a single-item or two-item assessment. Although this is common in large-scale self-report studies for relatively face valid constructs (e.g., Cheung & Lucas, 2014 ), there can be drawback to the reliability and validity of the assessments (though the consistency of our findings across ratings alleviates some of these concerns). Second, we did not examine whether this is solely a phenomenon in the U.S., as is claimed ( McAdams, 2006 ; see also Eriksson et al., 2020 ; Blackie, Colgan, McDonald, & McLean, 2019 ), though documenting the effect before engaging in cross-cultural work is logical, and provides a strong starting point from cross-cultural examinations.

Constraints on Generality

Following Simons, Shoda, and Lindsay ( 2017 ), we note that our target population was US adults, and we sampled emerging adult college students at two geographically distinct public universities, and adults willing and able to complete research studies in on on-line platform. Although this is a relatively broad range of participants, we do not have the power, nor did we sample with the intention, to examine various demographic characteristics (e.g., broad age range, immigration status, racial/ethnic background, sexuality, etc.) to determine the extent of the generalizability of our samples.

In conclusion, these findings support the previously untested claim that there is a preference for redemptive stories, and the ‘redemptive self’ ( McAdams, 2006 ). As such, they hold implications for the way we think about the role of cultural scaffolds and expectations for narrative identity. They also underscore the weight of these expectations for the individual, and the risk of leaving the cultural and social responsibility for preventing and managing trauma untouched. Creating awareness of this cultural and personal preference, which may be somewhat unconscious ( McLean & Syed, 2015 ), may alleviate some of the unintended pressure placed on those who have experienced trauma that is unredeemed.

The OSF page https://osf.io/ter62/ includes script for all of our analyses, de-identified datasets, supplemental tables, and all materials.

Please see our OSF page for a clear breakdown of the different variables used in each study, which asked fundamentally different questions about the perception of traumatic stories. Survivor endings were those that were redemptive, meaning there was positive resolution to the negative event, but they went a step further in that the narrator expressed positive resolution and integrated the event explicitly into their personal identity. For example, in the sexual assault narrative, the narrator became an advocate for other survivors. The examination of differences in survivor endings and the issue of personal/impersonal, acute/chronic is discussed elsewhere ( Delker et al., 2019 ).

Per common rates, we initially paid participants $2. However, we received a quite negative review of our payment, which essentially stopped all participation. Thus, we raised the payment to $4.

For clarity, we report the statistics separately for redemptive and survivor endings in our table.

We are grateful to: Annie Riggs and Shaun Sowell for comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript.

The Center for Cross Cultural Research provided a grant to Kate McLean and Brianna Delker to support this study; the University of Minnesota provided a Grand Challenges Exploratory Research Grant to Moin Syed to support this study.

The authors have no competing interests to declare.

Contributed to conception and design: KCM, BD, MS, RS

Contributed to acquisition of data: KCM, MS, BD, RS, WLD

Contributed to analysis and interpretation of data: KCM, MS, BD, RS, WLD

Drafted and/or revised the article: KCM

Approved the submitted version for publication: KCM, MS, BD, RS, WLD

The author(s) of this paper chose the Open Review option, and Streamlined Review option, and the peer review comments can be downloaded at: http://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.369.pr

Recipient(s) will receive an email with a link to 'Redemptive Stories and Those Who Tell Them are Preferred in the U.S' and will not need an account to access the content.

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Screen Rant

11 stephen king short stories that are begging for an adaptation.

While there are plenty of Stephen King movies already, some of the author's best short stories still have no movie adaptations (and badly need them).

• Autopsy Room Four: A delirious survival horror story that deserves a full-length movie adaptation.
• Uncle Otto's Truck: A grim and surreal chiller that could make a great psychological thriller.
• The Man in the Black Suit: A period horror tale that serves as a throwback to Mark Twain's writing.

There are a plethora of great Stephen King short stories that still don’t have movie adaptations, but absolutely need one. While Stephen King’s back catalog includes a lot of great novels, many of the horror legend’s best movie adaptations come from his short stories. The Shawshank Redemption was adapted from a novella featured in the collection Different Seasons , while the author’s debut collection Night Shift included the stories that inspired Salem’s Lot , Graveyard Shift , The Mangler , The Boogeyman , Sometimes They Come Back , and the 11-movie Children of the Corn franchise.

However, although all 66 Stephen King books have their good and bad moments, there are still a slew of superb short stories from the author that don’t have a movie adaptation of their own. Some of these are terrifying horror tales that maintain momentum no novel could hope to sustain. Others are surprisingly poignant tales that prove King is more than a master of horror. All of them, though, deserve a movie adaptation of their own for different reasons.

11 Autopsy Room Four

This intense survival horror story needs a full-length movie.

Although “Autopsy Room Four” was adapted as an hour-long episode of Nightmares and Dreamscapes back in 2006, that version was unable to delve into its truly terrifying premise due to TV censorship. Collected in Six Stories and, later, Everything’s Eventual , “Autopsy Room Four” tells the story of Howard, a golfer who regains consciousness on a mortuary slab as the technicians prepare his autopsy . Howard is paralyzed and unable to tell them he’s alive, setting up a delirious survival horror whose adaptation could borrow from the similarly claustrophobic likes of 2010’s Buried .

10 Uncle Otto’s Truck

This grim, surreal chiller could make a great psychological thriller.

It could become a gripping psychological thriller that toys with the audience’s expectations.

While Stephen King’s Skeleton Crew has inspired numerous great adaptations , its weirdest story has not yet been realized onscreen . "Uncle Otto’s Truck" follows a murderous businessman who crushes his partner with his truck, only to become convinced that the truck has taken on a life of its own in the decades that follow. On film, it could become a gripping psychological thriller that toys with the audience’s expectations, never revealing whether the truck is supernatural or simply a manifestation of Uncle Otto’s guilty conscience.

9 The Man in the Black Suit

This period horror is a throwback to mark twain’s writing.

Collected in Everything’s Eventual , Stephen King's “The Man in the Black Suit” sees an elderly man recount an unsettling incident from his childhood. As the boy fishes by an idyllic river, he encounters the eponymous Man in the Black Suit. A chilling embodiment of the devil, the Man in the Black Suit is one of the King’s most underrated villains . What would make this story a particularly compelling adaptation is its status as a rare Stephen King period horror story, with the nostalgic setting calling to mind Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

8 Rest Stop

This king story has all the ingredients of a fun action-comedy.

Despite the original story’s dark moments, "Rest Stop" has the makings of a potentially hilarious action comedy.

"Rest Stop" tells the tale of a mild-mannered mystery writer who happens across a domestic disturbance at a rest stop bathroom. Overcome by the personality of his hard-bitten detective antihero, the nebbish author beats the woman’s attacker and saves her, before reverting to his panicky self en route home. Despite the original story’s dark moments, "Rest Stop" has the makings of a potentially hilarious action comedy wherein a writer struggles to differentiate between his tough alter-ego and his real-life self .

7 Rainy Season

This shirley jackson-inspired tale would be a surreal scarefest.

"Rainy Season" is collected in Nightmares and Dreamscapes and boasts the impressive accolade of being among King’s strangest stories. The unmade Tales from the Darkside 2 would have adapted this tale of a couple who stay in a small town despite the locals warning them not to, only to end up faced with a deluge of razor-toothed toads for their troubles. However, "Rainy Season" is better suited to a full-length adaptation than an anthology segment, since a movie version of the story could expand on this strange town’s surreal curse .

6 One for the Road

This salem’s lot sequel would be a great standalone horror story.

Set three years after Salem’s Lot, "One for the Road" follows a group of barflies who attempt to help a stranded motorist. Unknowingly, this traveler left his wife and child in a car in the ruins of the vampire-infested town, prompting the unassuming locals to mount a rescue mission that goes tragically wrong. Thanks to its compressed timescale, limited cast, and nasty final twist, "One for the Road" could be a terrifying single-location siege horror in the vein of 30 Days of Night .

5 I Am the Doorway

This gruesome sci-fi body horror shows king at his strangest.

While King has dabbled in every major horror sub-genre, he is not primarily known for body horror. However, an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s scariest stories, "I Am the Doorway," from Night Shift would change that . The chilling tale of an astronaut who returns to Earth only to realize he has become an unwilling conduit for some extra-dimensional entity, the trippy, grotesque horror of "I Am the Doorway" would be better suited to an adaptation than the page since the hero’s nightmarish transformation could be brought to life vividly onscreen.

4 The Library Policeman

One of king’s darkest stories deserves a screen adaptation.

Admittedly, "The Library Policeman" could be tough to adapt. Among King’s darkest stories, "The Library Policeman" is a Lovecraftian piece that mixes shockingly realistic depictions of childhood trauma into its cosmic horror storyline. However, Mike Flanagan’s Gerald’s Game proved that even King’s harshest stories could become terrifying horror movies that handle potentially triggering material with tact. As such, this chilling story of a confrontation with an Eldritch terror deserves to make it onto the screen.

3 The Road Virus Heads North

This propulsive horror story needs a movie adaptation.

This chase thriller deserves a full-blown feature film adaptation since its propulsive plot is gripping enough to sustain a longer runtime.

Like "Autopsy Room Four," "The Road Virus Heads North" was brought to the small screen by Nightmares and Dreamscapes . However, this chase thriller deserves a full-blown feature film adaptation since its propulsive plot is gripping enough to sustain a longer runtime. One of the strongest stories in King’s collection Everything’s Eventual , "The Road Virus Heads North" sees its hapless hero attempt to outrun a haunted painting that he picked up at a yard sale. With a longer runtime, the protagonist’s growing desperation could be more impactful and intense.

2 The Reach

This elegiac tragedy shows king’s considerable range.

Collected in Skeleton Crew , "The Reach" is one of King’s most moving stories. The tale of a lonely elderly woman hearing messages from lost loved ones telling her to join them on the other side, "The Reach" would make for a more sedate, less scary adaptation than most. However, as Dolores Claiborne and The Green Mile proved, King is capable of much more than just horror. An adaptation of "The Reach" could remind viewers of the author’s sweeter side.

1 Strawberry Spring

Night shift’s best psychological thriller has a killer twist ending.

The short story ‘Strawberry Spring’ was turned into a narrative podcast in 2021, starring Milo Ventimiglia, Sydney Sweeney, and Garrett Hedlund . However, this superb version of the tale just proved that Night Shift ’s most underrated story still needs a movie. Following a nostalgic narrator as he details a terrifying crime spree that took place while he was a fun-loving college student, "Strawberry Spring" is a quietly creepy psychological thriller whose twist ending is vintage Stephen King , and this gut punch would be even more effective onscreen than it is on paper.

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A redemption story

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Apr. 5—The true life story behind McCracken Poston Jr.'s new book "Zenith Man: Death, Love and Redemption in a Georgia Courtroom" is one of amazing — if not downright eerie — coincidences.

"I had been struggling to write it for 22 years," the author said at a special presentation at Dalton State College on Wednesday, April 3. "I just could not come up with 'Why did this happen?' or 'Why was this this way?'"

In the late 1990s, Poston served as defense counsel for Ringgold's Alvin Ridley, a man put on trial for the alleged murder of his late wife, Virginia.

The trial itself was a tabloid sensation. "Sicko holds wife hostage for 30 years — then kills her," reads one particularly lurid headline.

But to Poston, an attorney still making the rounds of the Conasauga Judicial Circuit in Whitfield and Murray counties today, his client was anything but the monster painted by some publications.

"How can I explain Alvin?" he said. "A lawyer and a client who were so different and so at odds with each other that he was bringing his own motions to file — which he called 'emotions' — because he didn't think mine were good enough."

The story of Ridley's case was the subject of episodes of several popular cable television programs, such as "Forensic Files" and "American Justice."

Poston even recorded five-plus hours of commentary about the case for the National Public Radio "Snap Judgment" program — which was boiled down into a roughly half-hour podcast.

"So obviously, things did not get in that story that I felt were really important to get in," he said. "But what made me write the book was a juror in the case speaking to a podcaster from UTC (the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga), who was interviewing us both."

She asked if he believed Ridley — who was ultimately acquitted of the murder charge — may be autistic.

"I don't know why I never thought of that," Poston said. "You have to understand, 25 years ago nobody was talking about autism in adults."

Poston said that Ridley, a television repairman by trade, was routinely regarded as "peculiar" by his neighbors.

He said that Ridley's mindset reminded him of a "Rube Goldberg machine," referencing comical illustrations depicting elaborate contraptions designed to complete the simplest of tasks.

On the shuttered windows of his old repair shop, he said Ridley would post missives "blaming everybody in town for all his ills." He also had a penchant for filing lawsuits — almost always serving as his own legal counsel.

He said Ridley was also prone to conspiracy theories. Poston recalled a grandiose hypothesis of his client, in which he contended that an automobile accident was ultimately responsible for his father's fatal cancer.

"Alvin had a dignity about him, even doing and saying things that I knew were not going to fly well," he said. "He and Virginia both had this weird view that the federal government was going to 'save' them."

Poston recounted the events of Oct. 4, 1997, when Ridley used a pay phone to call Catoosa County authorities — a pay phone that was literally across the street from the county's 911 office.

"Lacking emotion, he said, 'I think my wife's passed out,'" Poston recollected.

At a residence off Inman Street, responders found the body of Ridley's spouse.

"The portions of the 911 call not shared with the public or played on news stations were the parts where the caller shared that his wife was, in his words, 'epi-letic,'" Poston said. "Or that he ended the call with a request — 'Please hurry.'"

At that time, Poston — who once served for eight years as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives — said he was still reeling from a thrashing in a 1996 U.S. congressional race, which he lost to future Georgia governor Nathan Deal.

He said he first heard about the discovery of the body from chatter at a fast-food place in Ringgold.

"I was just like everybody else, 'Who's missing?'," he said. "I didn't want to think that Alvin Ridley was capable of that, because my father actually liked him — my father traded with him when the TV shop was open, but they continued to have sort of a friendship."

Virginia Ridley was a recluse. Newspaper clippings from as far back as 1968 indicate that her parents had not seen her for more than three years.

Some alleged that she was being held captive by her husband — a theory that Poston flatly rejected.

He said one of the biggest pieces of evidence that led to Ridley's acquittal were reams of journals penned by the decedent.

Years and years of letters and writings, he said, dispelled any allegations that she was a "hostage" in her own home.

"She wrote three U.S. presidents when she's supposed to be locked in a basement," he recalled.

Amazingly, Poston said his own client refused to let him in his home. Had it not been for the gift of a Thanksgiving turkey, he said he may not have been exposed to the decedent's diaries at all.

As for why the generally distrustful Ridley sought his legal counsel, in particular, Ridley said the answer came in the form of a videocassette.

His spouse recorded a televised congressional debate, telling her husband that she believed Poston appeared to be a decent person.

Those are hardly the only incredible twists of fate in the case, he continued.

He recalled his client bringing suitcases to court — ones that were infested with cockroaches.

"We had to change courtrooms mid-trial and because we changed courtrooms mid-trial, we ended up in the old Catoosa County courthouse built in 1939," Poston said. "The last place Virginia Ridley had ever been seen alive, Sept. 15, 1970, at the eviction trial — her parents got them evicted from public housing, trying to flush her out."

Poston recounted the trial. From the outset, he said there was an agreement that Ridley would not testify before jurors.

Then Ridley claimed that he saw "Jesus" appear and tell him that he needed to testify after all.

"I tried to talk him out of it," Poston said. "I just explained to him 'Don't put your own character into evidence, don't say 'I would never do that.'"

The actual testimony, he recollected, went fairly well — until the very end.

"'Alvin, what have you lost here?'" he asked his client. "I really just wanted him to say 'The love of my life, my best friend' — and he goes 'Oh, I guess the funeral bill.'"

In hindsight, Poston said he realizes that during the trial there were some things he told Ridley that his client simply could not process.

"At the same time, I wasn't processing him," he said. "Thank God we are now detecting (autism spectrum disorders) and giving services and helping children grow into adults who can navigate the neurotypical world."

Poston recalled visiting his own father in a hospital and telling him that he was advising Ridley.

"My Dad said, 'Son, he's a good man, he just thinks differently than a lot of people,'" he noted.

Ultimately, Poston said the overarching theme of the book is apparent.

"Everybody is redeemed in this book — the coroner had Alvin over at Christmas, at her home," he said.

Throughout his lifetime, Poston said his father struggled with alcoholism.

"It affected me as a child, because I couldn't remember anything that I ever did that my Dad ever came to that I wanted him to be there," he said.

Toward the end of the trial, Ridley nudged his defense attorney and informed him of a presence in the courtroom.

"At age 39, my Dad finally came to something that I was doing," Poston recalled. "It was very special to me."

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New York and Hollywood Lore by Amor Towles (Martini Optional)

“Table for Two” is a collection of six stories and a novella set in two very different cultural capitals.

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By Hamilton Cain

Hamilton Cain is a book critic and the author of “This Boy’s Faith: Notes From a Southern Baptist Upbringing.”

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TABLE FOR TWO: Fictions , by Amor Towles

Few literary stylists not named Ann Patchett attain best-sellerdom, but Amor Towles makes the cut. His three lauded novels — “Rules of Civility,” “A Gentleman in Moscow” and “The Lincoln Highway” — hung around on lists for months, if not years. But Towles’s commercial brio belies the care and craft he lavishes on each piece, evidenced now in “Table for Two,” a knockout collection of six stories and a longish novella.

The book spans the 20th century, bringing characters from a range of backgrounds into tableaus of deceit and desire. Beneath his coifed prose Towles is a master of the shiv, the bait and switch; we see the flash of light before the shock wave strikes, often in the final sentence.

“Table for Two” is a tale of two cities, New York and Los Angeles, cultural capitals on opposite ends of the continent but forever tracking the other’s trends and deals, a mutual voyeurism. Towles devotes the first section to New York, its wealthy and famous shuffling against strivers and innocents in La Guardia terminals, musty bookstores or immigrant communities.

“The Bootlegger” depicts a woman’s epiphany after a Carnegie Hall concert. In “The Line,” a naïve Communist builds a lucrative business that steers him to Manhattan, where con games lurk on every corner. In “The Ballad of Timothy Touchett,” an allegory of 1990s excess, a rare-books dealer with the Dickensian name of Pennybrook manipulates the sympathies of his young assistant, who forges autographs of eminent authors until he’s busted by one. “Hasta Luego” tells the unnerving story of an alcoholic snowbound in a Midtown bar on the cusp of the millennium; Towles can’t resist mentions of Motorola and Nokia flip phones, reminding us how far away the near past really is.

But the Oscar goes to “Eve in Hollywood,” a novella that unfolds during the filming of “Gone With the Wind.” Towles tricks out the Tinseltown lore in a homage to the heyday of studio moguls and the hard-boiled fiction of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, even alluding to actual legends like Errol Flynn’s use of two-way mirrors and peepholes.

Towles plucks a character from “Rules of Civility,” Evelyn Ross, who’d vanished on a Chicago-bound train, picking up her narrative as she’s traveling to California. In the dining car she meets Charlie, a retired L.A.P.D. officer who will later prove an asset. She checks into the Beverly Hills Hotel, where she befriends an eclectic crew: a portly, has-been actor; a chauffeur with stuntman aspirations; and the rising star Olivia de Havilland. Lithe and blond, sporting an upper-class air and a distinctive facial scar, Eve is fearless, equally at home among poolside cabanas and seedy clubs where the music’s loud and the booze flows.

“From across the room you could see that no one had a leash on her,” one petty crook observes. “With the narrowed eyes of a killer, she was sussing out the place, and she liked what she saw. She liked the band, the tempo, the tequila — the whole shebang. If Dehavvy was bandying about with the likes of this one, you wouldn’t have long to wait for the wrong place and the wrong time to have their tearful reunion.”

When nude photos of de Havilland go missing, part of a larger tabloid plot, Eve vows to save her friend’s reputation. She’s a femme fatale turned inside out, matching wits amid an array of villains, including a former cop with a double cross up his sleeve. Towles is clearly enjoying himself, nodding to noir classics such as “The Postman Always Rings Twice,” “Chinatown” and “L.A. Confidential.” The period details are nearly airtight, although I did notice tiny anachronisms about Elizabeth Taylor and the slang term “easy peasy.”

“Table for Two” delivers the kick of a martini served in the Polo Lounge — the cover art is a cropped image of a couple at a bar, dressed in black tie — but there’s more here than high gloss. Both coasts are ideal settings for morality plays about power, as Towles cunningly weaves in themes of exploitation, an allusion to Shelley’s “Ozymandias,” a bust of Julius Caesar glimpsed by Eve on the Ides of March. Whether we’re living in the era of late-stage capitalism is beside the point; money, Towles suggests, will simply mutate into another form, preying on the vulnerable. “When it moves, it moves quickly, without a sound, a second thought, or the slightest hint of consequence,” he writes. “Like the wind that spins a windmill, money comes out of nowhere, sets the machinery in motion, then disappears without a trace.” It’s on us to summon our better angels.

Sharp-edged satire deceptively wrapped like a box of Neuhaus chocolates, “Table for Two” is a winner.

TABLE FOR TWO : Fictions | By Amor Towles | Viking | 451 pp. | $32

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It's been harder to accumulate miles but this airline has the best reward redemption rate

Airline reward tickets are getting more expensive. While cash fares for flights are rising slower than inflation, a new report from IdeaWorksCompany, a consultancy focusing on ancillary airline revenue, shows that reward redemptions are getting even pricier than paid-for tickets.

According to the analysis, airline reward ticket prices have increased 28% on average in the last five years, while the Consumer Price Index rose 21% over that same period.

The survey was based on 600 fare queries at six different U.S. airlines.

According to IdeaWorksCompany: 

• Southwest Airlines has the best reward redemption rate at 14,484 miles per flight on average.
• United Airlines has the most expensive reward tickets, averaging 30,460 miles per flight.

“Consumers can enjoy the perks of reward travel more rapidly on Southwest,” IdeaWorksCompany said in a statement. “The airline does have an inherent advantage because it focuses on short- and medium-haul routes and frequent flights. Reward prices tend to be lower for shorter flights and demand is more readily met with more flights.”

According to the IdeaWorksCompany analysis, the rise of basic economy tickets has made it more difficult for cost-conscious travelers to accrue airline points or miles. Most carriers now restrict the reward earnings on their cheapest tickets, which means low-fare seekers are less likely to be able to redeem future travel.

Earning points through credit card spending has also disrupted the airline reward ecosystem.

“When frequent flyer programs appeared in the 1980s, buying a ticket on an airline was the only way to accrue miles. The industry’s embrace of co-branded credit cards has changed this outcome,” the report said. “Now the majority of mileage accrual originates from partner transactions and the minority is generated flying the airline. Financial disclosures made by American, Delta, and United during 2020 reveal this change. Now these airlines are earning billions from the revenue provided by their bank partners.” 

As a result, the report said that travelers need to have an airline’s credit card to get the maximum benefit from its frequent flyer program.

Zach Wichter is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in New York. You can reach him at [email protected]

Canal+ Acquires Rafael Cobos’ Canneseries Winner ‘The Left Handed Son,’ From Movistar Plus+ (EXCLUSIVE)

By John Hopewell

John Hopewell

Chief International Correspondent

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In an acquisition which underscores the often shared sensibility between Canal+ , France’s biggest pay TV operator, and Movistar Plus+ , the largest Spanish pay TV player, Canal+ has acquired Canneseries winner “The Left-Handed Son” (“El hijo zurdo”), a Movistar Plus+ original series.

The series will bow on Canal+ on April 5 in a deal brokered by Movistar Plus+ International.

World premiering at Canneseries in April 2023, “The Left-Handed Son” went on to win best series in the TV festival’s short form competition.

Produced with Átipica Films and co-directed by Paco R. Baños, who helmed four of its six episodes, “The Left-Handed Son” kicks off with Lola, in her late thirties, receiving a phone-call from the police: Her son, Lorenzo, near 18, is being held in custody. When she gets to the police station, she’s told that he’s beaten up a Moroccan kid, nearly killing him. Why? “Because your son’s a skinhead,” an officer tells her.

Lola had no idea. Created by Cobos, “The Left-Handed Son” then traces a sense of inadequacy, felt by an often drunk and absent Lola, who feels she doesn’t live up to her mother’s expectations and indeed to her own. This is inherited by Lorenzo, whose violence is a call for attention from a son who feels abandoned.

The series is set in Cobos’ native Seville, both its upscale restaurants and humble high-rise periphery where Lola finds an unexpected friend who provides her some of the guidance she desperately lacks.

María León, who broke out in her first major movie role in 2011’s “The Sleeping Voice,” winning best actress at the San Sebastian Film Festival and a Spanish Academy Goya, plays Lola. 

“Beginning to develop ‘The Left-Handed Son,’ I decided that characters would for me determine events, surprising me, becoming the basic driver of its conflict, and not the other way round. And that, from this starting point, I’d apply the very same tools of tension and rhythm which I’d used in thrillers, injecting them as the story plays out. In other words, I inverted completely my work method, going against myself,” he added.

The series is memorably scored by Julio de la Rosa, with occasional parts of songs. De la Rosa’s score is “beautiful, lyrical, but underscoring subtext, making it occasionally too obvious. The songs came in to hide this very subtext, lightening the narration and giving it a different texture, another space for the viewer,” Cobos told  Variety.  

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Red Dead Redemption 2 player finds new open world secret after 100 hours

Featured Image Credit: Rockstar Games

In a game as huge as Red Dead Redemption 2 , there are plenty of secrets waiting to be discovered, even if you’ve put a hundred hours into the game.

When Rockstar Games released Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018 and instantly became one of the best video games of all time met with high critical acclaim and garnered scores as high as 97 on the aggregate website , Metacritic. It doesn't matter whether you partake in its main story, side activities, or freely explore its massive and immersive open world , even after six years, players are still making discoveries, such as the topic of today’s discussion.

Check out the Red Dead Redemption 2 trailer below!

“Arthur Morgan and the Van Der Linde gang are outlaws on the run. With federal agents and the best bounty hunters in the nation massing on their heels, the gang must rob, steal and fight their way across the rugged heartland of America in order to survive,” reads the synopsis of Red Dead Redemption 2 . “As deepening internal divisions threaten to tear the gang apart, Arthur must make a choice between his own ideals and loyalty to the gang who raised him.”

The discovery in question was shared by Reddit user Hendricks3185 who posted a clip of a random encounter with a strange lady at a campfire, who seems to be a few bananas short of a bunch. “Has anyone else had this interaction with this woman? I'm on my sixth playthrough and this is my first time meeting her,” they said.

Strange Interaction by u/E_Hendricks3185 in reddeadredemption

“I actually saw this for the first time last night! I'm over 100 hours in the game, but I'm still on my first playthrough in chapter three,” replied BohemianShark. “I love this interaction, whoever did her voice acting is amazing,” exclaimed Reconlobster. “I killed her to see if she had some interesting loot but she didn't,” said the ruthless Delevia.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is out now on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It’s also backwards compatible with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Topics:  PC , PlayStation , PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 5 , Red Dead Redemption , Red Dead Redemption 2 , Rockstar Games , Xbox , Xbox One , Xbox Series S , Xbox Series X

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Your last-minute guide to Monday's total solar eclipse

A total solar eclipse will cross North America on Monday , offering millions a rare opportunity to see afternoon skies temporarily darken as the moon blocks the face of the sun.

Tune into NBC News NOW as Lester Holt hosts a two-hour special at 2 p.m. ET Monday from Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The eclipse's path fortuitously cuts across Mexico, 15 U.S. states and a small part of eastern Canada. In all other states in the continental U.S., viewers will be treated to a partial solar eclipse, with the moon appearing to take a bite out of the sun and obscuring part of its light.

Here’s everything you need to know about the rare celestial event.

What is a solar eclipse?

Solar eclipses occur when the sun, moon and Earth align. The moon passes between Earth and sun, temporarily blocking the sun’s light and casting a shadow on Earth.

A total solar eclipse is when the moon fully obscures the sun, whereas a partial solar eclipse means it blocks just a portion of the sun’s face.

Solar eclipses occur only with the new moon. Because the moon’s orbit around Earth is tilted, the three bodies don’t always line up in a way that creates an eclipse.

“Imagine if the moon’s orbit were in the plane of Earth’s orbit around the sun — if that were the case, then every new moon, you’d have a total solar eclipse and every full moon, you’d have a lunar eclipse,” Neil DeGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, told NBC News. “So, because things don’t always align, it lends to the rarity of the event and the specialness of the event.”

Where and when will the eclipse be visible?

This year’s eclipse will follow a slightly wider path over more populated areas of the continental U.S. than other total solar eclipses have in the recent past.

NASA estimates that 31.6 million people live within what’s known as the path of totality, where the total solar eclipse will be visible. An additional 150 million people live within 200 miles of the path, according to the agency.

The path travels through Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Tiny parts of Michigan and Tennessee will also be able to witness totality if conditions are clear.

After the eclipse crosses into Canada, it will pass over southern Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton, at the eastern end of Nova Scotia.

Those outside the path of totality can still take part in the astronomical event by viewing a partial solar eclipse — visible throughout all 48 states of the contiguous U.S. — or a NASA livestream.

The timing, including how long totality lasts, depends on the location, but some spots will see the moon fully cover the sun for up to 4 minutes and 28 seconds.

Below is a list of timings for some cities along the path of totality, as  provided by NASA . A number of other resources, including NationalEclipse.com  and  TimeandDate.com , can also help people plan.

• Dallas: Partial eclipse begins at 12:23 p.m. CT and totality at 1:40 p.m.
• Little Rock, Arkansas: Partial eclipse begins at 12:33 p.m. CT and totality at 1:51 p.m.
• Cleveland: Partial eclipse begins at 1:59 p.m. ET and totality at 3:13 p.m.
• Buffalo, New York: Partial eclipse begins at 2:04 p.m. ET and totality at 3:18 p.m.
• Lancaster, New Hampshire: Partial eclipse begins at 2:16 p.m. ET and totality at 3:27 p.m.

How to safely view a solar eclipse

It is never safe to gaze directly at the sun, even when it is partly or mostly covered by the moon. Special eclipse glasses or  pinhole projectors  are required to safely view solar eclipses and prevent eye damage. Failing to take the proper precautions can result in severe eye injury,  according to NASA .

Eclipse glasses are thousands of times darker than normal sunglasses and specially made to enable wearers to look at the sun during these kinds of celestial events.

Sky-watchers should also never view any part of the sun through binoculars, telescopes or camera lenses unless they have specific solar filters attached. Eclipse glasses should not be used with these devices, as they will not provide adequate protection.

However, during the few minutes of totality, when the moon is fully blocking the sun, it is safe to look with the naked eye.

Beware of fake eclipse glasses. On legitimate pairs, the lenses should have a silver appearance on the front and be black on the inside. The manufacturer’s name and address should be clearly labeled, and they should not be torn or punctured. Check, as well, for the ISO logo and the code “IS 12312-2” printed on the inside.

If you don’t have eclipse glasses, you can make a homemade pinhole projector, which lets sunlight in through a small hole, focuses it and projects it onto a piece of paper, wall or other surface to create an image of the sun that is safe to look at. 

All you need is two pieces of white cardboard or plain white paper, aluminum foil and a pin or thumbtack. Cut a 1- to 2-inch square or rectangle out of the center of a piece of white paper or cardboard. Tape aluminum foil over that cut-out shape, then use a pin or thumbtack to poke a tiny hole in the foil.

During the eclipse, place a second piece of white paper or cardboard on the ground as a screen and hold the projector with the foil facing up and your back to the sun. Adjusting how far you hold the projector from the second piece of paper will alter the size of the image on the makeshift screen.

What to look for while viewing the total solar eclipse

For people along the path of totality, there are some fun milestones to keep track of as the total solar eclipse unfolds.

As the eclipse progresses and the sun gets thinner in the sky, it will start to get eerily dark, according to Tyson.

When the last beams of sunlight are about to become obscured, look out for the “diamond ring effect”: The sun’s atmosphere will appear as an illuminated halo, and the last light still visible will look like the diamond of a giant ring.

As the sunlight decreases even further, an effect known as Baily’s beads will be created by the moon’s rugged terrain. Tiny “beads” of light will be visible for only a few seconds around the dark moon, as the last bits of sunlight peer through the moon’s mountains and valleys.

When the moon is fully blocking the sun, it is safe to remove eclipse glasses and look at the total solar eclipse with the naked eye.

Some lucky sky-watchers may even catch a glimpse of a comet .

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks — nicknamed the “ devil comet ” because an eruption last year left it with two distinct trails of gas and ice in the shape of devil horns — is currently visible from the Northern Hemisphere as it swings through the inner solar system.

The comet can be seen in the early evenings by gazing toward the west-northwest horizon. During the eclipse, when skies darken during totality, it may be possible to see the comet near Jupiter, but its visibility will depend on whether it’s in the middle of an outburst and thus brighter than normal.

Most likely, all eyes will be on the alignment of the moon and sun.

“Most people won’t even notice,” Tyson said. “But if you know to look, it’s there.”

When is the next solar eclipse?

The next total solar eclipse will be in 2026, but it will mostly pass over the Arctic Ocean, with some visibility in Greenland, Iceland, Portugal and northern Spain. In 2027, a total solar eclipse will be visible in Spain and a swath of northern Africa.

The next total solar eclipse visible from North America will be in 2033, but only over Alaska. Then in 2044, a total solar eclipse will cross Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, parts of Canada and Greenland.

The next total solar eclipse to cross the continental U.S. coast-to-coast in will occur in 2045. The path of totality for that eclipse will cut through California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

Denise Chow is a reporter for NBC News Science focused on general science and climate change.

Lucas Thompson is a content producer for the NBC News Climate Unit.