Buechner addresses assorted baggage of the human condition from sexual infidelity to aging, guilt, failure, and death through the life story of a clergyman who has lost his wife in a senseless accident and must now persevere for the sake of his children.

“This is a story that skates with daring skill and exuberant speed over the thin ice of potential blasphemy, sentimentality, and violence to emerge finally on the firm, smooth surface of honest faith and uproarious laughter.”–Katherine Gauss Jackson, Harper’s Magazine

“Here is the rarest of the rare in contemporary fiction:  a novel devoted to the celebration of faith and joy.”–Lee Whiston, United Church Herald

“Buechner has given us a beautifully written, sensitive novel in The Final Beast.”–The Episcopalian