Servant of Slaves

Book excerpt: Author Grace Irwin recounts the powerful story of historical figure John Newton, who for a time was a sailor on ships engaged in the slave trade and then converted to Christianity at 23, eventually becoming an Anglican cleric and the author of a number of hymns (with poet William Cowper), including "Amazing Grace". Irwin's novel weaves Newton's story using third-person narrative interspersed with imagined dialogue which, fortunately, is skillfully done so as to engage the reader in the story rather than take them out of it.