G. Thomas Couser

Family Conscience

History & Biography

“Family Conscience is an extraordinary memoir. Tracing the various manifestations of conscience in his Protestant Midwestern family over several generations, Barbour illuminates the way in which ‘family values,’ whether adopted or resisted, can persist and shape behavior for decades. At the same time, his book is an acute inquiry into—and demonstration of—the ethics of writing about one’s relatives. It is an impressive achievement.”

Renunciation

Fiction

“This novel about two brothers divided by their common interest in religion effectively dramatizes the risks and rewards of spiritual questing. I found it thoughtful, wise, funny, sad, and in the end deeply affecting.”