This is a retelling of the biblical story of Ruth from the perspectives of Naomi and Ruth. I appreciated the author's desire to showcase a lesser-known biblical story, and one of the few that focuses on women and their experiences. Naomi and her husband leave their hometown during a drought and seek out a better future among non-believing foreigners. Their sons marry local Moabite women, but when all the men are killed, Naomi decides to return to her home, and Ruth goes with her even though she will be shunned for her background.
Borden beautifully illustrates the human tendency "other" and to marginalize those we believe are outside our group. Naomi and her family is othered in the land of the Moabites and Ruth is shunned in the land of the Israelites. The fact we are all human and there are good and bad people everywhere, no matter where they come from is beautifully illustrated throughout this book. I personally feel some of the transformational elements of this story with its focus on faithfulness (in all its forms, not merely religious) could have been brought out more.
Although the book is predominantly written from the points of view of Naomi and Ruth, and the structure around that is well set up, the author chose to throw in some brief sections from a third point of view. Considering the book is predominantly written in first person, the switch to third person for these additional bits was incredibly jarring. I think it might have been easier to read if there had been some forewarning for the reader, like formatting the different perspective as an "Interlude" or something similar.
Nonetheless, Great is His Faithfulness is a good book with some powerful moments and a good amount of food for thought.
