Kingdom of Simplicity
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Kingdom of Simplicity is a novel by American author Holly Payne published in June 2009. It is Payne's third novel.
The novel is set among the Old Order Amish in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania region. It tells the story of an Amish boy's attempts to move past "his anger ... and his guilt, which lead him on a painful journey during his rumspringa, the period when Amish teens are allowed to experience the outside world before formally joining the Amish faith. Eli can embrace it only when he learns to forgive.[1]
Told in the first person, the novel opens when Eli Yoder, the protagonist, steals a camera. This is a doubly significant crime, since the Amish don't use cameras or permit themselves to be photographed. This theft figures into another crime of sorts, and finally into Eli's expulsion from his non-Amish friends.