The Shack by William P. Young is the latest book people are buzzing about.

Mack Philips’ youngest daughter, Missy, had been abducted during a family vacation. Later, evidence was discovered that she was brutally murdered in an abandoned shack.

Four years later, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment, he goes to the shack and faces his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack’s world forever.

In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant, The Shack wrestles with the timeless question, “Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?”

After finishing the manuscript, the author couldn’t find a publisher. Christian publishers thought it was too controversial. Secular publishers thought it was too religious.

I’m not entirely clear on the details of how it came to be published…it is the first book produced by Windblown Media and has some heavy hitters (Eugene Peterson) as endorsers. It does have a look of being self-published: very thin paper, too much text on each page.

But definitely, definitely worth your time.