“Even when He tells us not to be afraid, we set our minds about it, worrying and fretting about every little thing. I was shaken by what God expected us to do.” ― Francine Rivers, The Last Sin Eater
Few today know of the strange custom of sin eaters once upheld in areas of the Appalachian Mountains. Brought over by Welsh and Scottish immigrants, the tradition of having a sin eater for the community stemmed from a gripping fear of the dead wandering the hills, restless in purgatory and unable to ascend to heaven due to the weight of their sins. Instead of having an entire community face this fate, it was thought better to have one suffer for the sins of all, and thus a sin eater was elected. Sometimes a beggar or other social outcast was chosen; other times the men of a community cast lots, and it was thought that God would then choose the man who had already committed the greatest sin.
Sin eaters were cast out from society for the rest of their days, summoned only to the side of their fellow man by the tolling of a church bell. The sin eater would then descend to the funeral and eat a meal over the dead person’s body, thereby taking the deceased’s sins onto his own soul. It was thought to invite a curse if another person looked at him, as he or she risked meeting the sin eater’s eyes and having some of the sin leak out onto their own soul.
Francine Rivers’ historical novel The Last Sin Eater takes place in the 1850s in the Smokey Mountains and centers around a community with this custom. The novel is narrated by Cadi Forbes looking back on her life as a 10-year-old when she was obsessed with finding the sin eater. Not only is she curious, but she has a burden that she knows she cannot carry her whole life and thus seeks to be absolved now, before her ultimate death. She is certain that the sin eater is the one man who can set her free from the tragedy that plagues her and the sin that has stolen her mother’s love from her.
Cadi’s journey is fraught with resistance, most especially from the threatening Kai patriarch who rules the community with an iron fist. Rivers paints a rich tapestry through the various characters, who each fill their own niche, and is adept in gradually mounting the suspense through the climax. My one critique, which I have found to be common in other of her novels, is relying on the deus ex machina ending where an element of the supernatural saves the day.
Francine Rivers began her writing career as a sensual romance novelist, but after becoming a Christian turned her talents towards writing Christian fiction. She has published multiple historical novels, and reading them is like taking a visit to another time period. Her research and detailed descriptions bring the period and place to life and add as much pleasure to reading her novels as does her interesting plots.
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