Episcopal author and Trinity Cathedral, Paris, Canon Theologian Greg Garrett takes readers on an international exploration of the human heart in his new novel, “Bastille Day,” published in April 2023.
The book’s protagonist is TV journalist Calvin Jones, who travels to Paris where he negotiates love, friendship, despair and faith.
It is one of the first releases from Raven Fiction, a new imprint of Paraclete Press.. Garrett is the author of almost 30 books, including a collection of conversations with Rowan Williams and several titles for Oxford University Press. His previous novels include “Free Bird” and “The Prodigal,” with Brennan Manning.
The Paris Episcopal cathedral is a major setting for “Bastille Day,” whose characters include a fictional cathedral dean, canon pastor, and vestry, while the climax of the novel engages worship at the cathedral on the National Day of Mourning following the Nice terror attack on Bastille Day 2016.
“The novel explores some of the same issues of faith, prejudice, violence, and doubt I deal with in my nonfiction books,” Garrett said, “but through the eyes of characters who are trying to come to some answers. Much of it was written during my visits to the cathedral, and I am so grateful for the support and encouragement of the American Cathedral’s leadership and its congregation. I’m also so grateful to be a writer in a denomination of readers.”
Garrett received his M.Div. (2007) from the Seminary of the Southwest, and is a frequent speaker on race, religion, and culture across the Episcopal Church. He has appeared at Washington National Cathedral and Trinity Wall Street, and in the Dioceses of Mississippi, Central Gulf Coast, Western Tennessee, Long Island, Western Louisiana, and Olympia. He is the Carole McDaniel Hanks Endowed Professor of Literature and Culture at Baylor University, and lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Jeanie and their daughters Lily and Sophia. Their home church is St. David’s in downtown Austin.
“Bastille Day,” Trade Paper: ISBN 978-1-64060-751-4 | April 4, 2023 | 272 pp | $19.99. Available on Amazon.
