Nearly 20 years ago, a pharmaceutical researcher and novelist was in a horrific accident. He spent weeks in intensive care and inpatient rehab, followed by several months in outpatient rehab. As he worked to regain his ability to move the thoughts in his brain to orally expressed ideas, he also remembered things about his first weeks of inpatient treatment, and he wrote.

What he remembered, what he wrote, and his musings on the nature of belief and the power of love became the book “Little Bit of Faith,” which he published under the same pseudonym, Saverio Monachino, as his previous works of fiction and nonfiction. Some of his fictional characters have personalities based on people in his real life, and to protect their privacy, he does not use his real name in his literary professional life.

The book is a complex tale in which Dr. Arthur McAiden gives his therapist, Dr. Emily Selwood, a written account of his accident and various intersecting narratives around it. Selwood reads the account and uses it to determine that McAiden has recovered cognitively, and can be discharged from therapy. It is only after she meets characters from McAiden’s account whom she assumed were fictional that she begins to wonder what is real, and how we can tell.

Part of what the book is about, according to Monachino, is, “When do you come out of a coma? And when you’re still comatose, does your mind intertwine the things you hear with memories percolating inside your head?” In the book, McAiden’s traumatically injured brain takes sensory inputs and weaves them into a narrative about various other things, including the Arthurian legend and the history of the kings of Great Britain written by Geoffrey of Monmouth.

Another aspect of the book is a consideration of religious fanaticism. McAiden – like Monachino a pharmaceutical researcher – is interested in the history of the British Isles, and believes he has evidence that British recorded history has been manipulated to suit the preferences of a ruling religious group. “Religious fanaticism — it’s historic,” Monachino says. “It has always been a root cause of hatred.” Fanatical Muslim characters in the novel who listen to a recording of McAiden discussing medieval religious controversies think he is talking about their own religious struggles, underscoring Monachino’s point that “the concept of ‘You have to believe it our way, only our way’ is not right,” regardless of which group is the one with the absolutist worldview.

Finally, the book is about the power of love and the nature of divinity. In the book, McAiden expresses the view that the trinitarian view of God includes intellect, empathy and a third characteristic that “holds it all together,” which Christians call the Holy Spirit (or the Holy Ghost). “This force,” McAiden says, “is composed essentially of love.”

Monachino credits love with helping him find the way back from his coma. His wife chose to be with him every day that he was in inpatient rehab, and people near and far prayed for him. He relates an account of meeting a woman who did not previously know him, but who had been praying for him as part of a church group. “Maybe that outpouring of love is what you feel when you are alone at night, like gentle waves lapping along the shoreline,” he says.

“My wife held vigil in the trauma center for five days,” he says, noting that his children were also there for him, even when they couldn’t figure out a concrete way to help him.

“They were there for me,” he asserts. “That is an incredible gift to have. Their gift of love is what helps the healing process; it is what helps you come back … to want to be back.”

Note: Saverio Monachino will be doing a reading and signing event at the Doylestown Bookshop Saturday, Aug. 31, from 1 to 3 p.m.