Aden Fisher's keen perception of the world around him combines with his uncanny insight into the inner world of the human person in his thought-provoking new novel, Kingdom. It is a rare combination indeed to be able to lay one's sights on both worlds at once. As such, the reader is not bogged down in superficiality or, at the other extreme, deep philosophical meanderings that choke the life out of a story. Kingdom is, in a sense, a coming-of-age story. But whereas such stories generally reveal the loss of innocence that accompanies an increased awareness of life, Kingdom's ultimate thrust seems to bear out just the opposite: It appears to offer hope in the face of innocence lost.