Mr. Fortune's Maggot

Reverend Timothy Fortune is a gentle, slightly eccentric missionary whose quiet faith has carried him from a clerk's desk in England to the far Pacific. When he feels called to the remote island of Fanua, he sets out with childlike trust in divine signs and a romantic hope of gathering souls, only to find himself welcomed into a world of volcanic beauty, noisy ceremony, and baffling ease. He settles into island life with practical care and deep wonder, building a simple home and making his first halting attempts at worship beneath the open sky. His work soon turns intimate when he meets Lueli, a graceful island boy whose charm awakens Fortune's hopes of conversion. What begins as tenderness and spiritual triumph becomes a painful test of belief when Fortune discovers that the boy has been secretly honoring an idol. His attempts to force repentance expose the limits of his mission, the loneliness of authority, and the fragile bond between affection and doctrine. Then, in the midst of this inner crisis, an earthquake tears through Fanua, trapping Fortune in fire and ruin until Lueli returns to save him. Together they flee across the shattered island as the sea itself threatens to rise against them. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.