Kenneth Robbins' latest novel is a wonder of sustained tension and contrast. Robbins knows how to hook a reader. The story begins with a young wife who is unable to accept the birth of her second son. Then, the husband, a decent down-home boy, is put into a sailor suit and thrust into the Pacific Theater during the hellish last days of WW II, where any man's compassion and humanity would be sorely tested. In the Shelter of the Fold is a profoundly moving and moral tale, vividly grounded in contemporary reality, without being in the least didactic. The narrative is as taut as an anchor rope in a gale, as clear and pure as water from a deep well. All the desire, temptation, anger, and despair of the human animal are overridden in this story by all that is tender and forgiving. With this work, Kenneth Robbins makes his strongest bid yet to become one of our most prominent authors.

The reader is well advised to buy two copies of this book -- one to treasure the other to share.