Book Reviews

Novel Honors Loving Spirit of Missionary John Bradburne

By Beaven Tapureta

The Next Of Kin (Second Edition, 2018, Reach Publishers, South Africa), written by Zimbabwe-born author Olivia Christian Paasche, is a highly spiritual novel, that is, with its engrossment with events happening in a pattern beyond ordinary human understanding, it appeals to the spirit.

The novel is a celebration of John Bradburne, a popular missionary and martyr who long ago harbored so much love for the lepers at Mutemwa, in Zimbabwe. His life story provides the essential background to The Next Of Kin, which is an enjoyable, uplifting five-part novel with love tucked at its centre of narration. The tale carries in its flow God’s care for His people and the reason why he sends ambassadors to represent His love in the whole world.

‘Part One’ takes place in Rome, with primary focus on the ordination of Angelo, the main character, and the unfortunate event that follows. It is this unfortunate event and others that herald Angelo’s continued search for Truth, even when he comes to Africa.

Although the Roman Catholic tradition is apparent, so motivating is the story. Some people, because of their innocent nature and submission to God's will in their lives, are blessed or privileged spiritually to converse with God. They hear the call of God, and follow it.

Angelo, who is so deeply inspired by John Bradburne to whom the novel is dedicated, is one such person who devoted his life to God from a tender age when he decided he would be a priest.

Yet trials and tribulations haunt him from the day of his ordination and in his missionary work in Mozambique, Africa, up to the end. He makes a decision today and soon afterwards, the spirit of God responds in very revealing visions or dreams either to remind him if he has made a wrong choice or a right move.

This is very well illustrated in ‘Part Three’ of the novel when Angelo is brought to Zimbabwe's St Michael's Hospital, half-dead. Having recuperated some days later, Angelo decides, perhaps for the umpteenth time, to give up his priesthood and marry Nicole; so drawn to her he is, and she too could not resist the power of love blooming between them. Nicole, loving and kind, is the embodiment of “the girl with a white rose” he had been seeing in most of his dreams. The novel is in some other ways about spiritual struggle and ultimate victory. In the choices we make, God is speaking through various ways.

The tale moves with a flowing, musical, dreamy style. The language of a gifted storyteller does not let you put the book down. In The Next Of Kin, it is musical, simple but deeply captivating, especially when the author describes the correspondence between the landscape or nature and the ‘human drama’ with such vividness, such beauty.

That the novel needed this updated edition is no doubt a successful decision the author made. The reader can feel the inspirational story of John Bradburne, who cared for the lepers in Mutemwa and was subsequently martyred. ‘Part Two’ of the novel, happening seven years after Angelo becomes an ordained priest and has been in Africa as a missionary, does bring Bradburne alive through the characters’ conversations especially when Angelo is admitted at St. Michael's Hospital (Zimbabwe). 

“He was a dear friend, mystic and prophet, poet and talented musician,” a nurse tells Angelo.

Missionary work in African countries faced cultural and various kinds of resistance in its initial stages until it began to be accepted. Bradburne lived through those hard times, fighting and eventually dying for the lepers who were his best friends. Likewise, Angelo finds himself ‘at the heart of the jungle’, fighting for the poor, enduring the bad winds of resistance, illness, etc. In the middle of all this, love blooms.

‘Part Three’, happening 14 years later in Mozambique, is a sad. But no matter how sad the story continues to drift in ‘Part Four’, the reader is comforted in ‘Part Five’ by the gripping letters Angelo wrote and never delivered to Nicole who only gets them later from Carlos, a close friend of Angelo. The enlightenment after reading the novel, that Nicole is but ‘the next of kin of the world’, that love triumphs, is indeed comforting.

According to writer Olivia, the novel was born out of a promise she made to Bradburne's friend, biographer and priest Father John Dove who died in Zimbabwe in 2014. She promised Fr Dove who was also very much involved in the leprosy centre in Mutemwa, that she would spread the word about Bradburne.

But thirteen years passed and something happened that reminded her of her promise.

"Interestingly, after 13 years, one day a picture fell from my wardrobe and landed face up in my hands! And who says the dead don't speak! So as you can imagine I was quite shaken. The cause of Bradburne's beatification is quite strong in the Vatican. There is quite a lot of excitement, even anticipation that if the cause for his sainthood goes through, Pope Francis will visit Zimbabwe," said Olivia.

The novel is indeed part of her spiritual life's story. Telling by her extensive nursing background, the reader could see her in the character Nicole – an incarnation of loving kindness, proud of her Zulu and Scottish roots.

Born in Zimbabwe, Olivia went to Moffat Primary and did her secondary education at Morgan High School. She trained as a nurse at the Parirenyatwa Hospital where she won several nursing awards. She was also a fashion model, featuring in magazines and was a familiar face on the advertising billboards.

Olivia travels extensively on pilgrimages to sacred places. Recently, she has been to Croatia on one such pilgrimage. The mother of five, blessed with three grandsons, says her passion is art and spending time outdoors with nature. She lives with her family in London where she works as a part-time nurse and wherever she is, she utilizes her nursing skills to assist the disabled.

 (This book review first appeared on the Writers International Network Zimbabwe blog: win-zimbabwe.blogspot.com)