This is a deeply personal book. It emerges from the author’s own search for meaning in literature, art, experience, and honest, vulnerable conversation with others in the complex swirl of identities and ideologies that is Central and Eastern Europe.  

 

It's as if he sits with two friends, one a Christian and one not, and invites both of them to consider more deeply their experience of the world. The book defies skim-reading as Marsh’s thoughts can be dense, but the rewards are great for those willing to chew over what he says. Moving between philosophical discussion and cultural analysis, he maintains a pastoral tone throughout and there is an earnest and sincere interest for the reader. This is not an academic treatise, but a conversation with a friend. Yet, it engages theory, philosophy, art and theology without being abstract.  

 

His extended illustration of the 'Cafe of Now and Not Yet' invites the reader to know through participation, and so this is a book that you experience as much as you examine. In that way, you are left deeply convinced and wanting that 'better country' and have probably already made plans to move there."