James portrays the fight between the two men as a struggle between good and evil and incorporates magical realism, with miracles woven into the plot similar.

This unspoken agreement is broken when a fire-and-brimstone preacher, Apostle York, abruptly appears during mass one day.

The congregation is drawn to York's lead as he fills the spiritual vacuum left by Bligh's vacant and soft-hearted ministry.

The New York Times Book Review states that: "Writing with assurance and control, James uses his small-town drama to suggest the larger anguish of a postcolonial society struggling for its own identity.

"[1] In a 2015 review, The Independent wrote that the novel is "undoubtedly breathtaking for its imagination and its storytelling, its 78 rejections mystifying, but there seems to be a baroque, spectacular side to the darkness.