I have a meeting next week with Yann Martel (winner of the Booker Prize and a prestigious German book prize for "Life of Pi") to get feedback about one of my stories. As you may already know, he's the writer in residence at the Saskatoon Public Library this year. I'm currently reading (and greatly enjoying) his novel. Below is an excerpt that I found particularly powerful. Martel is referring to various religions in it.


"There are always those who take it upon themselves to defend God, as if Ultimate Reality, as if the sustaining frame of existence, were something weak and helpless. These people walk by a widow deformed by leprosy begging for a few paise [small portion of an Indian rupee] , walk by children dressed in rags living in the street, and they think, "Business as usual." But if they perceive a slight against God, it is a different story. Their faces go red, their chests heave mightily, they sputter angry words. The degree of their indignation is astonishing. Their resolve is frightening.

These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside. They should direct their anger at themselves. For evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out. The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart. Meanwhile, the lot of widows and homeless children is very hard, and it is to their defence, not God's, that the self-righteous should rush."