Globe and Mail

Thank God. He’s bought a house.

William Paul Young, that is – the world’s hottest new novelist, a guy who not 16 months ago was working, in his words, as “a general manager, janitor and inside sales guy” for a small company in Milwaukie, Ore.; a guy who, “with a couple of jobs on the side,” was living in a rented house because he’d declared bankruptcy in 2003 and had been forced to auction the home he’d owned for almost 20 years.

And now? Well, Young – born 54 years ago this month in Grande Prairie, Alta. – and his wife of 30 years, Kim, are getting ready to move into their very own four-bedroom home in a suburb of Portland, Ore., with a guest cottage out back. “Omigosh, it’s a good time to be buying a house, lemme tell you,” Young said enthusiastically recently during a visit to Toronto.

The Youngs’ change in fortune is due to one thing only, and it’s not the sub-prime mortgage meltdown. It’s the phenomenal success of William Paul’s debut novel, The Shack, which has been at or near the top of the national bestseller lists in both the United States and Canada for close to a year. The book has taken Young from quasi-rags to real riches and, unlike other semi-instant millionaires who, after their windfall, say, “Nope, I’m goin’ back to the post-office job first thing Monday, same as usual,” he’s happy to let the money change everything.

Actually, not entirely everything. Sure, Young’s “not holding down three jobs any more” and the new house is nice, especially for the three kids (out of the six) that are still at home, and the travel is good. He was in Toronto, for instance, to speak at Wycliffe College, an Anglican seminary at the University of Toronto. “But in terms of the things that matter to us,” he said, “it hasn’t changed anything.”

While Young expected the religious right to not like his book; interesting he told George Strombouolopoulos on CBC’s The Hour, the backlash from fundamentalists wasn’t as bad as he expected. The Shack has been translated into 35 languages. (Evangelical Fellowship of Canada review) (Western Catholic Reporter review) (Canadian well known Calvinist blogger Tim Challies review) (Southern Baptist Impact review)