A PARABLE BEFORE HEATHENS

Steele’s surreal historical novel chronicles weird happening in a settlement in 16th-century America.

Penelope Turner and Alaster Harper are young people who have sailed from England to the New World (in the novel’s conceit, the bulk of the text comes from their respective journals). Alaster’s father is a secular humanist and Penelope’s father is a preacher. They are part of a group of settlers that has taken a nuanced approach to creating a colony; while the community is prone to the usual squabbles, the members get along remarkably well, even as some prove to be religious while others are logic-loving skeptics. One day, a strange woman and boy appear who are unlike anyone they have encountered. They are greenish in color; the boy dies, and the woman lives. The woman belongs to no native group, yet she has no knowledge of Europe; she eventually attains a normal skin color, but her origins remain mysterious. She is called Agnes. The arrival of Agnes is merely the beginning of the utterly bizarre events to come, which include the appearance of mysterious metal sculptures and a cathedral. The entries from Penelope and Alaster’s journals are written in a manner meant to evoke a bygone mode of expression; Alaster writes that one of the sculptures seems to represent “a great nautilus, with diaphanous waters fanned and smoothly spilling from the greatest aspect of its spiral, then caught by the limpid pool at its base.” This stylized prose makes the long novel (it’s over 800 pages) feel even longer. Still, such passages can be intriguing—when strange things start to happen, they build a palpable sense of mystery. (Who actually is Agnes? How do strange things keep appearing?) With the addition of some engaging interpersonal strife, like Penelope’s longing for Alaster, there is always reason to keep turning the pages.  

Though the prose is dense, this invitingly odd narrative keeps building intrigue.