A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L Peck blew my mind

I finished A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L Peck a few weeks ago and can’t stop thinking about it. I hate phrases like ‘blew my mind’ as it’s typically an exaggeration. But in this case, metaphorically at least, my mind has been blown.

What’s it all about?

The protagonist is an American geologist and Mormon called Soren Johansson. Soren is ordinary ‘everyman’ type, who is pretty smart, but not particularly special.

But like most religious types, he always kind of assumed that when he died he would be reunited with his loved ones and spend an eternity having an awesome time in Heaven. Unfortunately, he’s wrong. It turns out the one true faith is Zoroastrianism and so everyone else has to go to Hell.

Fortunately, Zoroastrianism isn’t as finite or mean as most religions, so Hell isn’t forever. Consequently, Soren is sent to a vast, huge, epic library, in which he has to find his life story. It is loosely based on a short story by Jorge Luis Borges about the Library of Babel (here’s Wikipedia link).

Is A Short Stay in Hell any good?

I loved A Short Stay in Hell and immediately went to a bookshop to buy more copies to share with people. Not just because it’s so good, but also because I wanted to talk to someone about it. I ended up on Reddit threads, happy to find I wasn’t alone and that there were a group of people who were similarly keen to discuss it.

Steven L Peck is a philosopher, ecologist, and a Mormon. This is a rare combo of characteristics that is required to write a book like this. The fact he is still a Mormon should reassure you that this is not a tract about religion. It is a book that really makes you think.

A Short Stay in Hell is an accurate title depending on viewpoint. And this book really is about viewpoints. When it starts and you realise the task Soren is set, it doesn’t seem to bad at first. There are no painful jabs with pitchforks, or even eternal fires. But then…

Well, I won’t ruin the mental journey the book took me on. Needless to say, it stuck with me and it is only around 110 pages.

You can check out A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L Peck by clicking on this.

(If you have read the book, you might like this. Someone has recreated the Library of Babel in digital form – https://libraryofbabel.info)