Somewhere Past the End

“I decide to watch the end of the world from the storeroom window.”

Who can resist an opening sentence like that? And aren’t most of us fascinated by the prospect of an inside look at a religious cult that could persuade dozens of people to gather in a meadow to be transported to heaven while the world ends?

This unique novel won’t disappoint those readers.

Somewhere Past the End is told through two alternating narrators in timeframes about 20 years apart: Teresa Andersen and her daughter, Alice. Both young women are pregnant in violation of their communities’ mores.

Teresa, her husband Tom, Alice, and her husband Jason are all members of the Collective, an isolated community in upstate New York led by a charismatic (of course) self-styled preacher, Brother Richmond. Alice, who was born into the community, has become increasingly rebellious over the years, culminating in the pregnancy that Brother Richmond forbade. (Or rather, as Richmond says to Alice, Jason, and their parents, God has told him that the couple shouldn’t have children.)

Alice is the one watching through the storeroom window while Teresa, Tom, and Jason follow Brother Richmond to “streamers of light… a hazy fog… a sudden pounding.” And then, nothing. Everyone in the meadow is, inexplicably, gone.

Teresa’s narrative is particularly fascinating for its insight, exploring how seemingly down-to-earth people can get seduced into a cult. It also shows Brother Richmond’s transformation from a friendly, generous, compassionate guy to an absolute monarch.

For instance, Tom and Teresa first meet Rich–as he’s known then–in a laundromat where they’ve lost the precious quarters they need for the washer and dryer. Richmond and his partner Jennifer cheerfully hand out quarters to all the patrons, then take Tom and Teresa for sandwiches and easy conversation. Rich has callused fingers and contagious laughter as he jokes, “We’re not going to give you quarters and then make you listen to a sermon.”

Alice’s chapters are more of a narrative page-turner, as she is torn between her lingering loyalty to the community—especially to her childhood friend, Edwin, who has become Richmond’s main disciple—and the pull of escaping with her baby. Her mix of guilt, skepticism, desperate love for her unborn child, and vestiges of religious faith rings true. Hovering over this section, too, is the question of exactly what happened in the meadow.

Even the best novel could probably never answer questions like “Why didn’t they leave?” or “Didn’t they see that Brother Richmond was manipulating them?” That’s partly because even people who aren’t in cults too often choose not to see what they know they’re seeing.

In this book, I think the author punts a little bit on some of the explanations. But overall, this is a novel that will enthrall and haunt its readers.