Speed Reading

In Eager to Love: the alternative way of Francis of Assisi, Richard Rohr OFM (Hodder & Stoughton, £9.99; Tablet price £9) has produced something miraculous: a fun, back-to-basics spirituality guide that manages to be both commonsensical and mind-bendingly Other at the same time. Here’s a version of Franciscan spiritual praxis that’s entirely accessible without being hollowed out or prettified – in fact, it’s impossibly demanding, but joyous with it. Fabulous.

David Adam’s The Awesome Journey: life’s pilgrimage (SPCK, £8.99; Tablet price £8.10) is something rather more sober, but just as demanding in its own way: an inner pilgrimage, in print. Adam (formerly vicar of Holy Island) is not only a skilled weaver of prayers but a spiritual director and retreat leader of many years’ standing, and the product of all this experience is impressive: a genuinely illuminating written meditation, easy to read but challenging – in the right way – to follow.

Christian Bobin is one of those authors who are wildly popular in the francophone world but barely known in the anglophone one. The Eighth Day: selected writings of Christian Bobin (Darton, Longman & Todd, £12.99; Tablet price £11.70) is the first collection of his writing to appear in English. And there is something peculiarly French in these short essays on life, death and God: the simple observation of heart-rending things; the cool, lucid language that strips away comfort. Pauline Matarasso’s translation conveys it beautifully.