Dawn: A Proton’s Tale of All That Came to Be by Cees Dekker, Corien Oranje, and Gijsbert Van Den Brink (translated by Harry Cook)

Here’s a fascinating, witty, reverent novel about creation involving evolution. Dawn will keep you smiling and thanking God for his faithful, loving relationship with the universe and people despite human sinfulness. Cowritten by theologian Gijsbert van den Brink, physicist Cees Dekker, and children’s author Corien Oranje, this brief book takes readers from the Big Bang to outer space post-Covid. 

The first-person narrator is Pro, short for proton. For billions of years Pro migrates among rocks, trees, barns, and more as a subatomic particle. Aware of its own existence, Pro wryly observes: “(As) part of a carbon atom ... you always have someone to talk to ... and have an extremely long life. But you don’t have a say about where you’re taken.” Pro witnesses Eden, the temptation and the fall. Later in a sheepskin tent from Abram’s household, Pro hears God’s promise and sees the various eras through Israel’s history of God’s faithful care. 

The story slows midway, lingering over Jesus’ birth, the magi’s visit, the escape to Egypt, and the desert temptation. As part of Peter’s walking stick, Pro travels with Jesus and his disciples and through his death and resurrection. Accompanying friendly sea captain Gaius who brings John food and supplies on the island of Patmos, Pro hears the promise of Jesus’ second coming as John narrates his vision of Revelation. 

Finally, Pro and constant companions Solon and Aris find themselves hurtling through interstellar space to wander—only God knows where. They’d been sloughed off an astronaut’s glove during a spacewalk. Chillingly, three astronauts, one a Christian, are searching for a viable place for human life as earth becomes steadily uninhabitable because of human environmental destruction. In the spaceship, Christian astronaut SaeJin witnesses to two atheist partners.

This delightful book turns into an evangelistic invitation for agnostics and atheists in a future century of almost total apostasy. SaeJin urges them not only to entertain belief in God, but to also accept the revelation of Christ and faith. 

In a conversation after the narrative ends, the authors focus on the compatibility of Christian faith and science. Retired King's University professor of biology Harry Cook translated this small gem from the Dutch, making it accessible to anyone open to learning truth through fiction. Parents looking for a book to read before bedtime to kids 10 and older will find this book a treat for themselves as well. (IVP Academic)