Six Steps to Salvation follows Trent Argent, once a high-flying entrepreneur, now sleeping rough under Geneva’s Pont Butin Bridge alongside a ragtag crew of idealistic interns. Determined to atone for his scandal-tainted past by lending his entrepreneurial flair to struggling nonprofits, Trent embarks on a series of well-intentioned schemes that often teeter between heartfelt and half-baked. The premise – watching a fallen mogul stumble through redemption – has genuine charm and sparkles with clever observations on the charity “business,” but it never quite soars beyond its self-aware cleverness.

Murphy’s writing is at its best in quieter moments: watching Trent struggle to grasp grassroots activism, or sharing a late-night campfire confession that reveals both vulnerability and vanity. A handful of set pieces inject brisk momentum and sly humour, and the supporting trio – Hobbs, Bong, and Amara – bring enough warmth to buoy the novel’s edges.

Yet the narrative’s ambition occasionally works against it. Midway, the book bogs down in repeated jokes about hustle culture and overly detailed backstory flashbacks that dilute its satirical bite. Trent himself, compelling in theory, sometimes feels like a vessel for one-liner commentary rather than a fully rounded protagonist. And when the novel attempts emotional payoff, it can ring a little too contrived, as if redemption must be boxed in neat narrative steps rather than lived in messy human moments.

In the end, Six Steps to Salvation is an agreeable, occasionally insightful satire that entertains more than it resonates. Readers seeking light social commentary with a dose of redemption arc will find enough here to enjoy, but those craving deeper character work or sharper narrative propulsion may feel the book falls a step short of true salvation.

Very average book, not particularly amusing, characters I really could not care about.
Premise is quite good but never fully exploited

This book was not quite what I was expecting. I like a nice satire, and this one's take on capitalism nonprofit exploitation was interesting, but dragged at times. The pacing and the morally ambiguous characters made it difficult to connect with. There is a bit of a redemptive arc that helped it. The humor may not be for everyone.

witziges Setting, eher ungewöhnlich. Als Schweizerin gefällt mir die Platzierung in Genf nicht, das berührt mich immer ein wenig peinlich.