Many lives have been altered by spiritual experiences. Pablo, the shoeshine boy, has such an experience, one he assures the reader that they will not believe. And why should we? It’s a story so outlandish that Pablo scarce believes it himself.

The Shoeshine Boy is a story of individual redemption. Can Pablo, a five-year-old, illiterate orphan, survive on the streets of a hostile world? But even more, it is a novel of human redemption, contrasting the power of belief with the power of delusion, of truth with the lies we tell ourselves every day. This is a novel about faith.

More broadly, it is a tale of choices. We live in a world of dwindling resources, exploding population, and technological revolution that is threatening our existence. The question becomes not whether Pablo will survive, but whether you and I will survive—and if so, how? The values we affirm and the choices we make based on our values can seal our fate as a species.

Kurt Vonnegut once said that he wanted to stay as close to the edge as he could without going over. “Out on the edge,” he said, “you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.” His words describe The Shoeshine Boy perfectly. It will take you to the edge.