Mr. Fortune's maggot

Reverend Timothy Fortune is a gentle, unassuming missionary who has spent years serving faithfully in the Pacific, teaching children, tending the sick, and balancing mission accounts. When he feels called to leave the comfortable Christian center of St. Fabien for the remote island of Fanua, his superiors warn him that the inhabitants are carefree, pleasure-loving, and unlikely to welcome conversion.

Rather than being discouraged, Mr. Fortune is intrigued by the island’s singing, dancing people and imagines a life devoted to gathering their souls. Yet his quiet faith, literal habits, and easy-going nature may be poorly matched with a community whose customs challenge the assumptions of the colonial mission around him. With wry humor and a keen eye for human contradiction, this thoughtful story follows an earnest clergyman toward an encounter with a world far less simple than he expects.