‘Feeling of hope and faith’: New book injects light into the darkness 

Nobel Prize for Literature winner Gao Xingjian says that “It’s in literature that true life can be found. It’s under the mask of fiction that you can tell the truth.” 

It’s a sentiment that Perth-based Baha’i and journalist Keith McDonald feels strongly about. “I feel that we could make a lot more use of literature in teaching the Faith,” he says. “Storytelling in written form, whether fiction or non-fiction, has great potential.” 

A Baha’i for more than 50 years, Keith worked as a reporter, feature writer, editor and columnist during his 45-year stint as a journalist. 

With a lifelong love for writing, it was after his retirement that he decided to “tackle a new writing challenge” and started penning Baha’i-inspired short-fiction as well as short essays as a way of stimulating people’s interest in the Faith. 

“It also felt like short-form writing was perfect for our modern lifestyle with people being so time-poor and influenced by the quick-fire nature of social media and texting,” he says.  

Keith’s latest book, titled Moments of Truth, is a work of 13 short fiction stories and seven non-fiction essays. The short fiction, which accounts for most of the book’s content, takes everyday themes and presents readers with the opportunity to reflect on the implications of those stories on their lives. The non-fiction essays are based on occurrences from Keith’s own life. 

Each short fiction piece starts with a Baha’i quote with some of the stories also including Baha’i characters. “Those that have no specific Baha’i references are about situations that highlight opportunities to introduce an aspect of Baha’i teachings — a granddaughter’s need for positive encouragement, a young man’s dilemma over how to respond to a lie, hurtful criticism of a teenage girl’s kindness towards a beggar, an elderly widower’s struggle to deal with the loss of his wife and an Indigenous man’s encounters with racism,” Keith says. 

“I want readers to be attracted to finding out more about the Faith or, if they are already Baha’is, I hope they will lend or give it as a gift to friends who are curious about the Faith.” 

With the world currently traversing through a period of darkness, Keith says he hopes to see more Baha’i-inspired fiction gain popularity in the future.  

He hopes Moments of Truth will inject some light into individual hearts and the community and large. 

“All too often, the arts dwell on darkness without letting in any light. The book tackles some challenging issues, but the stories should leave readers with a feeling of hope and faith in humanity.”