The Writer's Torch: Bruce Judisch

Guest Blogger, Author Bruce Judisch shares about his novel: Katia

CS Lewis once opined that we don’t need more books on theology, we need more books on science and other topics that have a Christian worldview embedded. While his comment focused explicitly on nonfiction, I think the same holds true with fiction, to an extent.

More than one writers’ forum has debated the value of storylines carrying an overt Christian theme—e.g., spiritual rags-to-riches with at least one profound conversion scene—as compared to stories with the Christian theme, or worldview, more subtly interwoven through its fabric. And, as is true with most debatable topics, each side has both strengths and weaknesses.

My first fictional series, “A Prophet’s Tale,” centered on the minor prophet Jonah. Therefore, it necessarily contained a strong overt Biblical message, as I was intent to remain true to the Scriptural account. Although set in a pre-Christian era (8th-century BC), the opportunities to reinforce, and even allude to, Judeo-Christian values were many. It was very enjoyable to write. However, in my latest novel, I took a different tack.

Katia tells the story of vivacious Madeline “Maddy” McAllister, a young American journalism exchange student who is commissioned to write the life story of Katia Mahler, a stoic survivor of post-WWII East Germany. The third major character, Katia’s long-time friend, Oskar Schultmann, facilitates the arrangement.

Raised and homeschooled in a Christian environment, Maddy is a junior at a large state university. She has adapted well—too well, perhaps—to the college and sorority scenes. And, as expected, her faith and her family relationships have eroded as her interests turned inward and her world shrank to herself and a small circle of friends.

Born in a bomb shelter in Karlshorst, Germany, in 1943, the infirm Katia Mahler has survived the deprivation of war and its aftermath, as well as the severe oppression of communist-controlled East Germany. The daughter of a clergyman and herself a staunch Christian, Katia’s faith has sustained her through trials of the worst kind.

Oskar remains in the background until his own secrets draw him into the story in ways he never expected or intended.

When Maddy moves in with Katia, generations and cultures clash, as two personalities shaped by such different worlds and eras struggle to understand each other’s present and past. Katia is formal, reserved and rigid. Maddy is none of those things. As you might expect, such literary ground is fertile for conflict and poignancy—and for much humor. It’s also fertile ground for both the characters and the reader to grow.

As Katia reveals her story, it produces a profound impact on the sheltered Maddy, who comes to recognize a world much larger than she had come to acknowledge and relearns the value of a faith she once cherished. But the lesson does not travel a one-way street. Maddy unwittingly exerts her own influence on Katia, too, who receives so much more than a memoir from the spirited young American.

Finally, Katia is set against a very real backdrop of 20th-century history. Katia’s narrative recounts events through the perspective of how they affected her family: e.g., the Holocaust, the Berlin Airlift, Soviet intervention in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and, foremost, the construction and ultimate fall of the Berlin Wall. Through this, Maddy also learns the value of a freedom that she has always taken for granted.

Katia, then, is a story not so much of redemption, but of restoration. The Christian moral message surfaces through metaphorical nuggets in Katia’s and ultimately Oskar’s stories, as well as through their interactions with Maddy.

So, it appears I side with Mr. Lewis in my approach to Katia. And that’s pretty good company, don’t you think?

As an aside, I wrote Katia based upon a scene I witnessed in Berlin at the fall of the Wall in 1989. A photo of that inspirational moment, plus a gallery of images from Berlin before, during and after that historic event can be viewed on my Web site at www.brucejudisch.com/katia.htm. I hope you’ll take a moment to visit me there.

For those who might be in the San Antonio area the weekend after Thanksgiving, I’ll be signing books and will have a complete display of Berlin Wall paraphernalia at The Twig bookstore in the Pearl Brewery complex on Saturday, November 27th, from 9:00-11:00am. Oh, and there will be apple strudel—of course!