The Shack
 |
|
| Author | William P Young |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Dave Aldrich |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Christian fiction |
| Publisher | Windblown Media, FaithWords, Hodder & Stoughton |
|
Publication date
|
May 2007 |
| Media type | Print, e-book |
| Pages | 256 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 166263178 |
The Shack is a Christian novel by Canadian author William P. Young, a former office manager and hotel night clerk, published in 2007. The novel was self-published but became a USA Today bestseller, having sold 1 million copies as of June 8, 2008. It was the No. 1 paperback trade fiction seller on The New York Times Best Seller list from June 2008 to early 2010, in a publishing partnership with Hachette Book Group USA's FaithWords imprint (Hodder & Stoughton in the UK). In 2009 it was awarded the "Diamond Award" for sales of over 10 million copies by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association.
The title of the book is a metaphor for "the house you build out of your own pain", as Young explained in a telephone interview. He also told radio host talk show Drew Marshall that The Shack "is a metaphor for the places you get stuck, you get hurt, you get damaged...the thing where shame or hurt is centered."
The novel is set in the American Northwest. The main character is Mackenzie Allen Phillips, a father of five, called "Mack" by his family and friends.
Four years prior to the main events of the story, Mack takes three (of his five) children on a camping trip to Wallowa Lake near Joseph, Oregon stopping at Multnomah Falls on the way. Two of his children are playing in a canoe when it flips and almost drowns Mack's son. Mack is able to save his son by rushing to the water and freeing him from the canoe's webbing, but unintentionally leaves his youngest daughter Missy alone at their campsite. After Mack returns, he sees that Missy is missing. The police are called, and the family discovers that Missy has been abducted and murdered by a serial killer known as the "Little Ladykiller". The police find an abandoned shack in the woods where Missy was taken. Her bloodied clothing is found but her body is not located. Mack's life sinks into what he calls "The Great Sadness".
...
Wikipedia