Zoe Murdock's Blog

Torn By God" touches on polygamy and the devastating effect it can have on families. The setting is the late 1950's and starts with a father searching for his own answers following a vision he had. He is carefully recruited into a group of polygamists and while he searches for his answers, his family struggles to stay alive. Described in a gripping way, the reader sees what it's like to live in a small, close-knit Mormon community that has no tolerance for a family like the Sterlings. The book touches on the LDS doctrine of excommunication, but doesn't delve deeply into Mormon dogma. It's not about polygamy; it's not about the LDS faith, but everything in the book surrounds it. It is the first book of this nature I have read, since my experience as an active Latter-day Saint is most books of this nature tend to tear down the LDS Church, or are written in a way to criticize the Church or its doctrine. I was ready to discard it should that happen, but surprisingly to me, I didn't find this to be the case in "Torn By God." I felt myself sympathizing with the Sterling family, who found themselves torn between loving their father, abiding his interest into a polygamist cult, and paying the price that comes from neighbors who are quick to judge. Couple this with the meager circumstances they find themselves living in as their father breaks promises and is lured away from home for a season. When you add to their disappointment, heartbreak and discouragement, the ever-present hypocritical attitudes of their pious neighbors, (many of whom are fellow church-goers), you find yourself thinking "There but for the grace of God go I." "Torn By God" is thought-evoking, and a real page-turner. It's a book you'll find yourself reading in one or two sittings! ”