Like Barbara Kingsolver's brilliant Demon Copperhead, a Pulitzer Prize winner, All Saved Great and Small transports the reader deep into the heart of rugged Appalachia, a part of the country not understood by most people. Lawlessness and poverty plague the region. A star athlete, Finn Boone struggles to rise above his bootlegging father and his father's murderous behavior. A person of Melungeon descent, Grace Goins fights against racism and prejudice. When their teenage love is forbidden, they go their separate ways in life. Over forty years later, FBI Special Agent Finn Boone, a reluctant preacher, and Dr. Grace Goins, a Presbyterian theologian and an expert on religious cults for the Department of Homeland Security, find themselves on the same team trying to stop a brilliant, rogue scientist who is willing to destroy human civilization to save the planet from the climate crisis. How many must die? Will the scientist be found before he unleashes a terrible AI weapon to force world governments into action? Members of the team are shocked when they discover the identity of the scientist who claims to be a descendant of Mary, mother of Jesus, and has the DNA evidence to prove it.
Industry Reviews
“David Howell is a consummate storyteller. He brings to the task a generative memory, an ear for how real people talk to each other, and an eye to clearly see the quotidian realities of sex, alcohol, God, college, football, cars and, as of late, conspiracy theories. The outcome of his imagination is a story that smacks of specificity, but that at the same time reiterates the recurring realities of intimate human community. You will want to hear this tale of faith, honesty, and human frailty.”
—Walter Brueggemann, professor emeritus of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary
“All Saved Great and Small is imaginative, theological, and explores life’s mysteries: love, betrayal, death, and redemption. You won’t be disappointed.”
—Jewell-Ann Parton, pastor, Westminster Presbyterian Church
“David Howell is grateful for, critical of, and so revealing about his Appalachian roots. In this book, Howell uses his considerable narrative skills to bring us from Appalachia of the distant and near past, taking us right up to present day realities. Part memoir, part mystery thriller along with theological reflection, David Howell sure knows how to tell a well-wrought tale.”
—Will Willimon, professor of the practice of Christian ministry, Duke University
“All Saved Great and Small will grab you from the start with multi-layered characters and a setting and plot made so real by the author’s experience of the context in which the story is told. In the arsenals of those who hope to leave the world better than we found it, our most powerful tools are stories that leave us changed; this is one of them.”
—Amy K. Butler, author of Beautiful and Terrible Things
“David Howell tells stories that will intrigue, delight, fascinate, and haunt you. In All Saved Great and Small, he weaves together AI, climate change, a Chesapeake cult, conspiracy theories, religion, and the FBI. It’s a narrative cocktail that could too easily appear in tomorrow’s headlines!”
—Brian D. McLaren, author of Faith after Doubt
“Paradox and surprise are two special qualities of good storytelling. With characters as different as two feet in different worlds, they manage to come together as a unified body to make reading David Howell’s latest book a pleasurable reward.”
—Donald Davis, featured storyteller at the annual National Storytelling Festival
“David Howell knows how to tell a story, and this book is ample evidence thereof. As most of his books, All Saved Great and Small grows out of his experience as a product of Appalachia. But the sweep of this story reaches well beyond the hills and hollers of his home to gather up law enforcement, religious phenomenology, and even science fiction. Told with Howell’s near-breathless present tense narrative style, his sentences keep you turning pages, wondering whether you’ve anticipated the next turn of events or about to be surprised. More often the latter than the former.”
—Paul Hooker, retired associate dean, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
“David Howell’s creative storytelling delivers a moral fiction narrative, All Saved Great and Small, which will keep you enticed, fascinated, and absorbed. This work provides an exciting read to everyone interested in the struggles and tragedies humans endure and the triumphs humans experience.”
—Grace Ji-Sun Kim, professor of theology, Earlham School of Religion
“I have known David Howell as both a preacher and instructor of preaching. Now, in this intriguing novel, he takes readers on a fascinating journey from the hills of Appalachia to the corridors of power, introducing us to a cast of
