Wonders of a Godless World

by Andrew McGahan

On an unnamed island, in a Gothic hospital sitting in the shadow of a volcano, a wordless orphan girl works on the wards housing the insane and the incapable. When a silent, unmoving and unnerving new patient - a foreigner - arrives at the hospital, strange phenomena occur, bizarre murders take place, and the lives of the patients and the island's inhabitants are thrown into turmoil. What happens between them is an extraordinary exploration of consciousness, reality and madness. Wonders of a Godless World, the new novel from Miles Franklin-winner Andrew McGahan, is a huge and dramatic beast of a book. It is a thought-provoking investigation into character and consciousness, a powerful cautionary tale, and a head-stretching fable about the earth, nature and the power of the mind. It is utterly unlike anything you've read before - it will take you by the shoulders and hold you in its grip to its nerve-tingling finale.

Genres: Fiction, Novels, 21st Century, Australia, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Book Club

260 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Andrew McGahan (b. 1966) was an Australian novelist, best known for his first novel Praise, and for his Miles Franklin Award-winning novel The White Earth. His novel Praise is considered to be part of the Australian literary genre of grunge lit.

Reviews

[Al Bità · Rating 5 out of 5]

This gets five stars simply as an astonishing feat of the imagination! Imagine writing a book where the two main characters are nameless: the girl is an inmate of an insane asylum; the man is in a coma throughout; they are able to 'communicate' purely through thoughts and feelings; 'he' may even be immortal. McGahan manages all this with no apparent difficulty whatsoever; again he prose is lucid and clear. One feels no problem in following the most fantastic of events. He also manages to intersperse numerous scientific theories of the creation of the universe without batting an eyelid.

What is going on here? What is NOT going on here? Within the 'crazy' world of the insane, the descriptions of fantastic events seem to unfold realistically, so much so that the reader easily follows the arguments, whether one believes them or not. All is mediated through the mind of the girl. She 'understands' the man as no one else can. He is her saviour, her teacher, her redeemer. Or is he? Is there some ulterior motive behind his friendship with the girl? Within this world of the insane, there are many images of destruction: particularly the image of the volcano. There is even insanity within the insanity; there are deaths; or are they murders? Is there a controlling force behind it all? Is it his mind? Is it her mind? Worlds are relative places: initially, the island on which the asylum is situated is the only world; later the girl realises there are other worlds; and further out in space, maybe even more different worlds... Is the mind that is the man in the coma God? How wondrous is he? Or does he, like other gods, need to be destroyed? And if so, by whom?

And then you realise that all this is presented from the perspective of a person considered to be insane... Whether you think it is all real, or whether it is merely the work of a fevered imagination, the ride through this wondrous world is a blast. You are in good hands. Whether one agrees with the solution at the end is, strange to say, neither here or there (although it does make one think about the moral and ethical consequences of our decisions) but some people may find this disturbing. Ironically, I believe that any such disturbance is a good thing.

Despite all his powers, the man's world appears to be godless; the girl's world is also godless, though she suspects the man might be godlike; but since the story told is her story, is it all made up? In the end, is she, who knows she is not a god, the real author of everything you have read, the 'real' god? If so, then one has to conclude that even the most wondrous of things that can happen never need any concept of god for them to be explicable. They are all merely the creation of someone's mind, and in this case, maybe of an insane mind at that!

[Megan Osborne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I voted this as my favourite Australian book in the First Tuesday Book Club vote in 2012. Andrew McGahan in a legend!

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Because of Andrew McGahan excellent book on a post-Inquiry Brisbane, Last Drinks, I picked up this one in a charity store whilst browsing. The back blurb indicated it wasn't my usual fare, but I thought perhaps the writing might get me through.

Sadly, it did not. This is a fanciful tale, of ludicrous proportions. It swung being preposterous and vaguely interesting (if you were doing something else whilst reading it) and preposterous and just plain stupid. I'm sorry Mr McGahan, I really loved Last Drinks, but this was crazy.

There's some writing skill on display, sure, so it wasn't a complete waste of time. But nearly.

I stuck it out to the end, hoping for some kind of salvation, or even that one of the characters might be given an actual name rather than a noun to describe them (orphan, foreigner, old doctor, young surgeon, archangel, duke, lecherous night nurse) or that perhaps even a place or topographical object might be named (rather than island, big town, volcano, mountains). Nobody or place was ever named.

That in combination with the bland bizarreness of the plot and dialogue made it seem like a bunch of ghosts wafting around in fog. There's nothing to hold onto or get a grip on.

Deary me.

[belisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

tek kelimeyle harikaydı
başlangıçta yükseliş darbesinde çok heyecanlandım
sonra ortalarda duraksadım, anlatım da ritmini korumasına rağmen ağırlaştı
öyle ki arada başka kitaplar okudum
bugün de son bölüme geçtim...

yaratıcılığına hayran kaldım
görkemli başladı ve daha da görkemli bitirdi
ve insanın belki de doğumdan getirdiği o iplik gibi incecik doğasının nasıl katı ve değişmez
olduğunu anlatan güzel bir destan oldu...

başka bir kitabı çıkmış daha önce
onu okuyacağım bir süre sonra
daha fazla kitabı çevrilsin...

güzeldi işte...

[Lisa Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andrew McGahan is a writer who is always pushing boundaries. I have read all but one of his previous five novels and each was memorable and unique. He is probably best known for the Brisbane-grunge story, Praise, which became a movie, and his Miles Franklin Award winning The White Earth. Perhaps disconcertingly for his fans, when you pick up a new McGahan book, you have no idea what you will get.
With Wonders of a Godless World, he gives us a brain-stretching reflection on our universe and the human mind. McGahan originally set out to write a story with no human characters, using only the forces of nature to drive the plot. Realising that this worthy ambition wasn’t going to work, he found the next best thing - a mute woman and a man in a coma. As you might expect, there is no real dialogue in the book.
Set in a Gothic mental hospital on an unnamed island, the story brings us a strange cast of inmates including The Orphan, The Duke, The Archangel and The Virgin. These all appear to be archetypes which illustrate an aspect of the human condition. This gives the story a mythical quality.
The arrival of a newcomer, The Foreigner, to the asylum creates a ripple that becomes a storm. The mute woman, The Orphan, finds she can communicate with The Foreigner although he is in a coma. His influence over her and the other inmates is a dark thread that pulls the reader on. Nature’s glory and destructiveness does play a big part. A volcano erupts, a comet heads towards Earth, a dam bursts. The Orphan is able to predict the exact course of these natural events.
McGahan is not one for flowery writing - raw emotion is his usual modus operandi. He is also not afraid to tackle some big topics – our relationship with our planet, mind control, madness and sanity for starters. I found this book gripping, strange and rather mind-bending. It was hard to know what was ‘real’ and what ‘imagined’.
Wonders of a Godless World probably isn’t for everyone, but if you like to see writers taking risks and playing with the limits of fiction then give it a go. It is an impressive work of imagination and, personally, I can’t wait to see what he does next.

[Tricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really torn about what to give this book. I found parts of it had really flowery language that seemed a bit drawn out. I had to balance that though with me constantly asking myself if this was something that was really happening or whether it was a delusion inside her head.

In the end I settled on the half way mark as I am still unsure how I feel about it. It definitely won't be for everyone.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant esoteric novel about the way in which we treat the planet and the revenge that it exacts. The symbolism used is amazing, it is truly one of the weirdest most wonderful novels I have read i a long time.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one weird book!
I'm not sure if it is too intelligent for me... I didn't quite get it.
I am still wondering about it and whether it was written as fiction with a fantasy slant... or whether it was just all in the mind of the main character!

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastical novel, exploring the complex inner world of the 'insane' mind. Some difficult situations, but largely amazing.

[rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

The final sentence of the blurb above is 100% correct. This novel is an extraordinary journey into the power of the mind, even when beset by apparent idiocy or madness.

I find it difficult to even classify the book. It's not really SF, nor is it pure fantasy. It is a psychological mystery, but it goes well into the paranormal. There are certainly elements of fable, especially about mankind's perceptions of and relationships with the Earth. Strong threads of conservationism run through the story.

The novel is well plotted and very well written. McGahan uses language economically but often with great beauty. The pace is excellent and the characterisation, especially of the nameless central character, "the orphan", is very well developed. The novel is gripping and very easy to read. I could hardly put it down. It races to a dramatic climax.

If you would like a book that is really different, this would be an excellent choice.

[Di Christensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read as an audiobook.
With the fabulous David Tredinnick as narrator it was a great read. Interesting if fanciful Storyline that skilfully navigated a bunch of issues around disability and mental health right to the edge but avoided the fall.
I loved the weird and wonderstruck interwoven with science.

[Adrienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hoped for so much more out of this book and in the end was disappointed. The plot feels shallow and too convenient. Vaguely interesting concepts raised and I did enjoy the imagery of the Earth and beyond, but the story itself wasn’t thought out enough to satisfy me. Also some of the sexuality bits were straight-up weird lol.

[Bronwyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written story.
Full of wonder and delightfully detailed exploits..
What do we know about how our mind works..
Is it madness or can we really take flight and change the world just by thinking those thoughts..
Imagine the possibilities..

[Cathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of the most irritating books that I have ever wasted time on reading too much of. Gave up about 7/8ths of the way through, in disgust. A stupid book.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one messed with brain… I didn’t exactly enjoy it but it fascinated me and made me have weird dreams!

[Tracie Lark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Refreshingly fantastical. A liminal space story.

[Tal Honor · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not sure this book even made it's point! What was I suppose to take from it?

[Chrisnaa · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s hard to say where exactly the wheels of Andrew McGahan’s Wonders of a Godless World fell apart for me. I think the ultimate failing of this book is that it's clearly constructed as an allegorical novel, where all the characters and their situations are meant to be analysed and read into, a construction that comes at the cost of emotion and connection. The namelessness gimmick re-emphasises the superficiality of rendering everything archetypes.

It's easy to see that this novel is trying to talk about deep and significant and heady topics like our reationship with nature and the need to subjugate it and bend nature to our wills, or religion's relationship with sex, the inherent unreliability of the narrator, what it means to be God & the authorial voice etc. But these questions are all neatly constructed, it feels like the book was written to be discussed at a book club while sipping chardonnay, rather than as an exploration of anything. This book didn't spur the urge for me to think about any of these concepts, I was more just going "wow where is he going to next?" The use of sex was also very offputting in that it was so mechanical and "icky" for lack of a better word. There was a strange BDSM scene that did not need to go into that much detail.

The writing is pretty at times, in a glossy way that smells just ever too strongly of acetate. Some parts of it feel ripped straight from a geology textbook. In the end, you can feel this book falling apart as McGahan struggles to cap this story off, but to be fair how can you come back to Earth after occupying a comet. The book eventually falls apart into the cheesy pyrotechnic death throes of a 90s disaster movie. Wonders of a Godless World is an interesting experiment but never really threatens to be anything more.

Also the book makes some mention of how the orphan chooses to give the power up and that is the great failing of the foreigner. Of course this ability has’t been suggested elsewhere in the novel so this philosophical struggle which is contained to one sentence does not really have much impact.

[Bleu · Rating 2 out of 5]

The orphan cannot speak, understand the speech of others or remember any names; she is a young woman living an isolated existence. She works in the island's mental institution, carrying out menial tasks and watching over four harmless cares- the duke, the witch, the archangel and the virgin- until a new patient is brought to the hospital. The mysterious foreigner is covered in burns, in a near-coma and has no name.

Although he never wakes, the two form a connection as he can get inside her head and speak to her after the eruption of the nearby volcano- an eruption she felt and saw before it happened. As he shares the stories of his life and his supposed immortality, the orphan discovers newfound abilities and the true extent of her own madness.

Except... was it still madness if the supposed delusion was proven real? After all, she genuinely could predict the weather. Everyone knew it. (p18)

This story is an interesting exploration of consciousness, challenging how we view reality and our human need for connection with others. It considers madness in its many forms, proposing that it is merely a lack of comprehension from those less informed or enlightened. It's blunt and brutal.

This story is also one long geography lesson.

The constant jumping between the two is enough to cause whiplash and it's only frustrating because it feels like you're being dragged away from the interesting concepts to focus on the boring bits instead. Whenever there was a complicated emotion being explored or a dramatic plot point unveiled, you're then presented with three pages on the wind.

I can see why many would like this but, for me, the focus was in the wrong areas.

[Kris McCracken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonders of a Godless World by Andrew McGahan

This is a book that has divided readers. For mine, it’s a tour de force of prodigious originality that tackles weighty themes in a strikingly effective and playful manner. McGahan is bold with his stylistic approach here, as the novel lacks exterior dialogue or proper nouns. Moreover, the narrative momentum of the whole piece takes place entirely within the confines of the mind of a presumed feeble-minded deaf-mute and (possibly) a comatose stranger.

Confused? You wait until you get into the finer details of endogenic geomorphic processes, star formations or storm cell patterns. If this troubles you, perhaps you will find respite in exploring insanity, sexual deviancy, childhood trauma or the nature of immortality.

Whether a work of science fiction or insight into delusion, I loved this book. There is an unapologetic approach to the blunt manner that taboo subjects are interrogated at length. I can’t quite discern how McGahan manages to straddle such a sustained feat of the imagination at the same time as constraining his characters within such cramped and closed environs. There is a majesty in how such ugliness is transformed into moments of immense beauty.

This might not be the book for you, but my word, if it is, you’ll thank me for recommending it!

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

[Pastyl · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book started out rather intriguing, so I was pretty excited to see how it would turn out. It was cool seeing life through the eyes of a unique protagonist for once, but I started to lose interest quickly, to the point where I had to put the book down and stop reading only halfway through. I just couldn't motivate myself to continue reading it anymore, because I just felt like there was nothing to look forward to. It felt a little slow-paced for me, and although I had read through a little less than 200 pages, I still couldn't understand the point of the story. What kinds of powers does the foreigner have, since he seems to be able to do so much? What does the foreigner need the orphan for? Why was the foreigner in a coma? Do I have to keep hearing stories about the foreigner's seemingly many deaths before I can finally get any sort of answer?

Maybe there's a deeper meaning to this story that just went right over my head while I was reading this. But based on my experience with this book, it's not something I would ever pick up again and finish reading, and it's not something I'd recommend either. It's just not my cup of tea.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars
I’m giving it this rating because there were some worrisome and grotesque intercourse scenes, but besides that I really enjoyed this book. The language can be flowery at times so it’s best if you use your imagination and picture what the author is saying in order to get the most out of it. It’s also a sad ending but in my opinion it’s not that bad

**spoiler alert for 2nd paragraph**

It’s about a disabled girl who meets a comatose man with telepathic powers and lived 5 lives, returning from the dead time after time. They can take their consciousness away from their body to venture in the great galactic expanses, time travel through the man’s memories and experience all these amazing thing

[M.Akif GÜNGÖREN · Rating 3 out of 5]

Büyük beklentilerle okuduğum, ancak bende hayal kırıklığı yaratan bir kitap oldu. Yazar, fantastik öğelerle, fizikötesi olaylarla bir yetim ve bir yabancının hikayesini anlatıyor; astral seyahatler, zihinsel yolculuklar, zihinlerin ele geçirilişi, ölüp ölüp yeniden dirilmeler ve sonsuz hayat konuları, romanın temelini oluşturuyor.

Zaman zaman felsefi dokunuşlara yer vermesine, kitabın sonunun insanın yüreğini acıtmasına rağmen edebi açıdan çok başarılı ve güçlü bulmadım. Yazarın hayal dünyasının zenginliğini görmeyi ve kolay okunur bir kitabı amaçlayanlar için önerebilirim sadece.

[Georgie Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘...contemplative, existential, melodic…’

I really enjoyed WONDERS OF A GODLESS WORLD but I’m still working through what it was about, and why I liked it.

In short, I think it is a treatise on human existence, the nature of humans and how we relate to one another. I must say, it feels strange to have enjoyed a novel so much yet not know why, or what it was about (!).

ANDREW MCGAHAN’S writing is exquisitely melodic - I often felt as if I was floating along somewhere between this world and the next - which is no mean feat, given there are no character names or dialogue. MCGAHAN really challenged himself with this project and pulled it off. While not my favourite novel of his (I don’t love magic realism in general and prefer a faster pace), WONDERS OF A GODLESS WORLD certainly cements him as one of Australia’s great novelists.

[Nevanthri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is seriously weird! After I finished it, I felt really sad for the main character,the Orphan. There were moments that are a bit boring and drawn out but I felt at the end the tale had grown on me. The characters, except a few, are all insane to various degrees. The imagery is sharp and the depth of despair is great. I don't think this book would be enjoyed by everyone, it requires some patience to get through.

[Andrea]

With just the right sprinkle of magic this could easily have become a rare favourite. But it just wasn't there. As almost always happens when the characters don't have names, I really struggled to connect with them and with the story. I also found David Tredinnick's overly-theatrical narration quite tiresome.

[Maureen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have reviewed other books by this author very positively in the past but this one was too far out in fantasyland for me to finish it. I don't know what its point was and frankly don't care but it just shows that there is something in the McGahan canon for everyone.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really imaginative book, but the overall effect is only dark and depressing.

[Chookychook · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book depressing & disturbing. It was a drag to keep reading & I'm happy it's finished so I can read something uplifting. The book was so dark & ugly!

[Sarah Flinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading this but can't say I really "got it".