Kessler is a writer and goat farmer on Mount Equinox in Manchester, Vermont.  His neighbor is the only Carthusian monastery in the US, The Charterhouse of theTransfiguration.  I read his book, Goat Song, an  entertaining reminiscence of his life as a goat farmer and enjoyed it very much.  North is his third novel and one well worth reading.

Though some might find it a bit sentimental, this engaging and tense story weaves the lives of three characters into a believable tale.  Christopher is the abbot at a monastery high on Blue Mountain (the stand-in for Mt. Equinox) where 12 monks spend their days in prayer and work totally separated from the outside world. Teddy Fletcher is a local whose father was the groundskeeper for the monastery, a job he inherited after he returned from duty in Afghanistan having lost a leg to a land mine.  Sahro is a Somali woman who has left her war-torn home.  She’s the only hope for her extended family living in daily fear and danger in Somalia, and has made her way through Yemen, London, Ecuador, Central America, and detention in Texas and New York to land at the gates of the monastery when her ride to illegally cross into Canada goes off the road in a winter storm.

Kessler tells the story of these three individuals in a skillful and page-turning way.  Which will Christopher choose to honor, the enclosure of the monks or the Christian duty to help the immigrant? Will Teddy overcome his PTSD and be a part of the solution or the problem? Will Sahro reach safe haven after her harrowing journey?

This isn’t great literature and is not destined to become a classic, but it’s well worth reading if for no other reason than to empathize with the stranger and lost souls, to understand the contemplative life, and to root for the underdog.