free fiction: "unleavened"

Last fall, I had the privilege of being one of the first people to read a draft of Peter Dudek's new novel, Unleavened. Peter has just released it as an eBook via Amazon, and you can get it free through tomorrow, April 22. After that, it will be $3.99—still a pretty good deal for a book!

Here's the synopsis of the book from Peter's website:

A widowed father. 

A homosexual son. 

Brad Miller, small-town newspaper writer, is numb to the sensation of love. Since his wife died, his once thriving relationship with God has degraded to a distant acquaintance. The only solace he finds is writing anonymously at his blog, a place where invisible readers offer him a safe sounding board to express his detached emotions. 

But after he finds out his son is homosexual, he is forced to ask himself, and his readers, how can homosexuality be reconciled within the Christian faith? Mixed advice from two very distinct church cultures makes him a central point for division among his Christian brothers and sisters. Confusion and distrust abound. 

To save his relationship with his son, Brad must surface his long hidden wounds and emotions and make himself vulnerable to both his church family, and to God.

Here's a bit of what Dudek has to say about his subject matter (for more, see his blog):

Homosexuality is one of the primary “sins” preached against in the Christian church. It is a very taboo topic, but it is not one that should be considered through one-dimensional glasses. Any issue of sexuality is deeply complex and emotional. Christians should realize that even people with whom they hold disagreements are still real people with real hurts, wounds, fears, needs and joys.

I think we can agree that those of us who claim to be Christ followers are often adept at "hating the sin" but struggle with "loving the sinner," and Dudek does a great job of addressing this topic through fiction.

Unleavened will push some buttons. You probably won't agree with every point Dudek makes. (I didn't.) You might even squirm a little. (I did.) This is not an easy, fun read like most of the books I talk about on this blog. But one thing this book will do is force you to think—I finished the book four months ago, and I still find myself thinking about it from time to time.

If you'd like to read it, you can get it here. (And remember, you can also get Dudek's fantasy novel City of Prophecy—which I loved—for just $2.99.)