Exile and the Kingdom

The collection contains six separate stories: 'The Adulterous Woman,' 'The Renegade,' 'The Silent Men,' 'The Guest,' 'Jonas, or the Artist at Work' and 'The Growing Stone.' They do not share a plot or recurring cast.

Each protagonist is caught between isolation and some form of community. Janine experiences a private awakening during a trip with her husband; a missionary tells a violent, unstable account of failed conversion; workers return to a barrel-making shop after a strike; a schoolteacher is ordered to deliver a prisoner; a successful painter loses the space to work; and an engineer joins a Brazilian religious procession.

The title names the collection's tension. A person may feel exiled from other people, from a homeland or from a meaningful life, while still sensing a possible 'kingdom' in solidarity, physical experience or creative attention.

'The Adulterous Woman' follows Janine on a sales trip into the Algerian interior with her husband Marcel. A nighttime visit to a desert fort briefly gives her a feeling of freedom that her marriage does not.

'The Renegade' is the fevered monologue of a missionary who tried to impose his faith on a brutal desert city and was captured, tortured and converted to the worship he meant to destroy.

'The Silent Men' follows Yvars and other barrel makers returning after an unsuccessful strike. Their employer's attempt at ordinary contact cannot overcome the anger and shame on both sides.

'The Guest' places Daru, a teacher on an isolated plateau, between a French officer's order and an Arab prisoner's freedom. Daru refuses to choose for the prisoner, but the political conflict does not allow neutrality.

'Jonas, or the Artist at Work' follows a painter whose success fills his apartment with visitors and obligations until he builds a tiny loft in which to work alone. 'The Growing Stone' sends the engineer d'Arrast to Iguape, Brazil, where he takes part in another man's religious promise.