Seventeen-year-old Tranquillity Bloom lives in Ballarat and dreams of moving to Melbourne to become a nurse. Her family are part of a diminishing religious sect, the Christadelphians, and Tranquillity’s world is one that is zippered chokingly tight. Life is full of bibles and Brethrens, Sister-wives and Sunday School, Truth and scripture by rote. The ecclesia do not talk to Outsiders, and no one in the community is allowed to leave.

Meanwhile Horace, Tranquillity’s maniacal, controlling father, instils the fear of God into each of his nine children by comparing the events of the Gulf War to his End of Days checklist to make the case that Armageddon is nigh. His overweight wife, Violet, kind-hearted and ‘round as an earth ball’, doles out what small generosities she can to her daughter despite her powerlessness. Needless to say, all of this makes a break to Melbourne about as solid as smoke. And as Tranquillity nervously awaits her exam results, the wife of her favourite brother, Reuben, disappears, and the fragile stumps that hold the family together begin to cave.

As a tale of family dysfunction, Holy Bible is both comedic and blackly-lit. There’s a kind of innocence to its tone, with its roving birds’ eye view of the Blooms and their sect, as well as liberal doses of bawdy humour – nervous bodily functions and rebellious masturbation to name but two. Yet the novel is also not afraid to plough into more grotesque territory. For all its raucousness, there’s a darker violence that later steers the book into far more disturbing territory.

Some characters, like the painfully sanctimonious Sister Olive, twist into caricature. Others, like Tranquillity, are a touching mix of will and naivety. For all her religious cynicism, it’s clear that Tranquillity is still painfully sheltered. She studies for nursing by reading through the medical dosages guide, the MIMS Annual; with no access to actual medicine, she doles out M&Ms and Smarties by way of tablets – a childlike gesture of make-believe that speaks of her shuttered world. Vanessa Russell herself grew up in a Christadelphian community, leaving when she was 26. Throughout Holy Bible, the question looms as to whether Tranquillity will be able to make her break or not, and the last chapter is one of incredible poignancy and quietness.

Jessica Au