“The impact of this book is unavoidable, the shock it causes, profound and lasting. First comes the discovery of that desolate place where the world comes to end: the daily life of the buried alive who are the Texas death row inmates of today.

The isolation, the brutality, the endless screaming all night long -- compounded by an entire penitentiary institution devoted to tightening the stranglehold. Experts in inhumanity inventing ways to increase suffering -- a legalized, state-sponsored system that is designed to ensure the continuous degradation and humiliation of the prisoners.

And then, from that demonic hell emerges that which could never be conceived, nor imagined, nor dreamed: A consciousness. A fragile beacon of truth. The finest peak of human tenderness.

His name: Roger McGowen.”

Those are some of the words by French writer Christiane Singer in her introduction to Pierre Pradervand’s book, Messages of Life from Death Row based letters from Texas death row inmate Roger McGowen (published in December, 2009, by BookSurge, Charleston, South Carolina). Order now at amazon.com.

The book is a compilation of some of the letters Roger wrote to Pierre Pradervand and a few pen-pals during the years 1990-2009. It was published originally in 2003 by Editions Jouvence (St-Julien en Genevois, France, www .editions-jouvence.com) under the title Messages de vie du couloir de la mort and two years later in Dutch by Ankh-Hermes (Deventer,Holland) under the title _ Boodschappen van leven in de dodencel._ The Dutch edition is currently out of print and only available through De Slegte bookstores in the Netherlands (www.deslegte.nl).

The book is structured in an unusual way. On the right-hand pages, are Roger's letters to Pierre Pradervand and other correspondents. On the left-hand pages are a variety of texts by the author or from other sources that echo specific issues addressed in the letters on the right-hand pages, or that give important information about the functioning of the American judicial system. You will also find detailed descriptions of daily life on death row, as well as texts of a spiritual nature including some of Roger's most inspiring words.

The systematic worsening of the living conditions on Texas death row on the one hand, and the growing nobility of Roger's thinking over the years on the other, will not fail to strike anyone reading those letters.

The book can be ordered on amazon.com. where you can read the first six pages, the back cover, table of contents and a few random pages by clicking on "Look Inside."

Something quite amazing has been happening around this book since its publication, and the public response has been stunning. People are touched beyond words by Roger’s example. Many have started writing to him. Congregations are saying masses for him. People in different countries are praying for him, like the young Senegalese woman, Seynabou, who says she prays for him five times a day. The guru of a local ashram sent monthly donations for a time for his defence fund. Above all, more and more readers are doing things.

The book (French Version), was sold out four months after its first publication and a second edition was made, which is very rare for a book of this kind in French-speaking Switzerland.

Pierre Pradervand wrote:

“Both Roger and I have been overwhelmed by very moving letters coming from readers who had been deeply moved by his book. Furthermore, between 2003 and 2008, readers have contributed about $200’000 (€ 130’000) to the fund for Roger’s legal defense. For example, a craftsman whose income is most likely modest, sent us a five-page letter explaining to us that the book had changed his life, and he made a CHF 3’000 (€ 2000) gift. Several persons with modest revenues have sent very substantial contributions, and other readers make regular payments, some of them even monthly. All bear witness to the very powerful impact of Roger’s book.”

“The book has deeply transformed Roger’s life as well. He’s been receiving up to ten letters and cards on some days! (the prison doesn’t always distribute incoming mail regularly). Through his book, Roger has become a kind of spiritual master for hundreds of people. It gives some meaning to his suffering, in a manner of speaking. A few years before the book’s publication, he wrote: ‘God has a perfect plan for my life.’ _ Now he sees the meaning of those words he had written inspired by faith. That “plan” (in the sense that his life has meaning after all) unfolds in a dazzling way. Each letter he receives is a testimony that confirms the choices he has made and his perseverance through sixteen years of total desert before the book’s publication. Now, an extraordinary oasis has appeared in that desert where Roger can quench his thirst in the company of those who are in spiritual communion with him.”_

“Never have I seen Roger doing so well as during our visit of April 1-2, 2004. He was literally beaming. To see the face of that man, who was telling me, with a huge smile, ‘I_ am happy,’ is something I will not forget as long as I live. Didier Bonvin, journalist at_ Matin Dimanc_ he, who was accompanying me to Texas on that visit, and who wrote a superb article, was also deeply impressed by the serenity and joy that radiated from Roger. He told me of a reader who had lived twenty years in hatred, entertaining it even, until the book had set him free. That reader had added that it was so wonderful to be able to walk as a free man. And I thought of the extraordinary power of that symbol: Roger, a man physically imprisoned but free inside, who liberates a citizen physically walking free while mentally in chains!”_

“When one examines the explosive effect of Roger's book up close, one cannot help but feeling that something special and very precious is taking shape.

We are not sure exactly what that is, but as a British saying goes, "God works in many wondrous ways".

Children's Drawings to Roger Click Here