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1-Page Summary of The Shack
Overall Summary
Willie, the narrator of the story, introduces his friend Mack. Mack had a difficult childhood because his father was an alcoholic and beat him up all the time. Now he is happily married to Nan with five children.
The story opens with a man named Mack who is watching the snow fall from his home office. He thinks about how sad he feels, which he refers to as The Great Sadness. His sadness makes him angry and fearful of what’s going on in his life. Then, he receives an invitation to go up to a shack that weekend signed by Papa—Nan’s nickname for God—which sends shivers down his spine because it reminds him of all the pain and suffering in the world around him. Meanwhile, Nan calls Mack and tells him that she is worried about their oldest daughter Kate who has been distant lately. She prays for answers from Papa/God every day when she gets home from work at her job as a nurse at St Francis Hospital where she works with Dr Gopal Nayar (the author).
Three years ago, Mack took his children on a camping trip. On the way, they stopped at Multnomah waterfall where Mack told Missy a story about a princess who sacrificed herself to save her tribe. Later that night, Missy asked if God would ever ask her to sacrifice herself like the princess did. Touched by this question and wanting to reassure her daughter of God’s love for them, Mack assured her that she will never have to do anything like that.
Everything is going fine until the last day of their trip, when Kate and Josh decide to play in a canoe. Missy sits at a picnic table with Mack watching over her. Kate tries waving at Mack from the canoe but she capsizes it and Josh gets trapped under water. Mack runs to save his son, but he’s distraught when he realizes that Missy has disappeared.
A camper tells the forest ranger that he saw a girl in the back of a truck who was crying as it left. Police officers arrive and learn about this from the ranger, Mack. The police officer Tommy Dalton joins him to investigate at the campsite where they find evidence that matches with Little Ladykiller, or LLK for short—a serial killer responsible for kidnapping young girls and abandoning them without food or water while they die painfully. The next day, Mack learns from Sam (the search and rescue leader) that some people have found a truck matching that description parked near a national forest nearby. He goes there to help look around for Missy (one of those kidnapped girls), but breaks down when he sees something familiar: her dress torn up with blood on it!
The family struggled to recover after Missy’s death. Kate became withdrawn and Mack felt himself drifting from God because of the note in the mailbox. Nan proposed that they visit her family, so Mack took this opportunity to go alone to the shack where he broke down at the sight of blood on the floor. He left but soon found himself in a forest blooming with new life thanks to spring. The shack transformed into a beautiful cabin beside a lake, and when he went inside, it was filled with African American Papa, Asian Sarayu and Middle Eastern Jesus who explained that together they were God which made sense for Mack.
Inside, Mack talks with Papa as she prepares dinner. She says she will try to help him understand that he is loved and that God is always with him. They enjoy a meal together, talking about Mack’s family and the importance of relationships based on respect and love rather than hierarchy and power. After the meal, Papa leads a devotion in which Jesus says he loves all three parts of God: Papa (the creator), Jesus (human incarnate form) and Sarayu (Holy Spirit).
