So weird and specific request, but I'm looking for books where a person has been training to go into the religious field and realizes something is off with where they are OR a book about a flawed religious character who is finding their way.
I would prefer if it wasn't just "religion is bad" but something that represents something more morally gray.
An example I have right now is "Small Things Like These" the main character is Catholic (although not a priest or deacon) and learns the truth about the Magdalene Laundries or Father Jud in Wake Up Dead Man where he is a former boxer who becomes a deacon
by Arts_By_Art
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The Story of B
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich. 2000%.
The Poisonwood Bible so very much fits the bill here.
All Our Hidden Gifts series by Caroline O’Donoghue, specifically books 2-3
The Sparrow and its sequel Children of God by Mary Doria Russell. The main character is a Jesuit priest who… It’s really too outlandish to tell. You should read the synopsis on Goodreads or another book app and see if it’s right for you!
The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott
An old one:
The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler.
If you’re open to a crime fiction series, one of the main characters in the Millers Kill series by Julia Spencer-Fleming is a recently ordained Episcopal priest who wrestles with her vocation and faith (and sin, in a manner of speaking) throughout. The first book is In the Bleak Midwinter and the most recent (At Midnight Comes the Cry) came out last year.
Wise Blood, by Flannery O’Connor.
Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson.
Abide with Me, by Elizabeth Strout.
Black Narcissus, by Rumer Godden.
Chaplin Tappman in Catch-22
The Origin of the Brunists, by Coover… more concerned with a religious cult than a single character though.
Haven by Emma Donoghue
Conclave by Robert Harris
Terry Pratchett’s Carpe Jugulum
Jim Casy, the former preacher, from *The Grapes of Wrath* by John Steinbeck.
Small Gods by Terry Pratchett. A thoughtful, satirical story about organised religion.