Father of Lies

Father of Lies is a 1998 novel by Brian Evenson. This psychological thriller describes moral corruption in a conservative religious sect which shares some of the characteristics of the LDS Church.

Father of Lies is written from three perspectives: from Provost Fochs, from his analyst Dr Alexander Feshtig and from the text of letters exchanged between Feshtig and his superiors in the church hierarchy.

Plot

Eldon Fochs is a 38-year-old accountant and lay provost. He is happily married with four children. Feshtig works as a therapist in an Institute of Psychoanalysis funded and controlled by the church. Fochs is persuaded to go to Feshtig by his wife, who has a growing suspicion that her husband harbours dark secrets.

Fochs slowly reveals the contents of his dreams and his "disturbing thoughts" about children to Feshtig. He reveals two dreams; one when he strangles and dismembers a girl and another of a 12-year-old boy. In the dream, the boy comes into his office and Fochs brutally sodomises him. He frightens the boy with threats and forces him to admit to having been molested by an uncle, something that never happened. Fochs claims that in his dream he was guided by God.