Writing a book about a close friend is never a simple undertaking. But for Joe Mackall, whose friend happened to be a member of the most conservative Amish sect, the Swartzentrubers, the project was particularly fraught. His new book, Plain Secrets: An Outsider among the Amish (Beacon: June 15, 2007), speaks frankly of his admiration and occasional horror of Amish life as lived by his neighbors, the Shetler family.

"I did not want to endanger my relationship with the Shetler family, or do them any harm. But 30 years from now, if I didn't do it, I would be scratching my head, saying, 'Why didn't you write that book?'" Mackall told RBL.

Mackall has lived a mile away from Mary and Samuel Shetler since the couple first moved, more than 16 years ago, into a nearby farmhouse, which they first had to strip of "English," or non-Amish, amenities. "I came home one day to find a toilet near the street and an outhouse being built," writes Mackall.

Belonging to the Swartzentrubers means Mary, Samuel and their ten children adhere to Amish teaching in its strictest form: no electricity, modern plumbing and phones, of course. In addition, however, Swartzentrubers bathe only once a week and wear hand-sewn clothing. "And I thought growing up Catholic was hard," chuckled Mackall.

When one of the Shetler's daughters, nine-year-old Sarah, is diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer and spends her last days in a hospital, allowed to play with normally forbidden pinwheels, Mackall and his own family visit her and share the Shetler's grief when she dies.

Mackall is awed and comforted by how Sarah's parents are able to accept their daughter's death as "God's will." Yet he bubbles with anguished resentment as, each year, buggy fatalities claim Swartzentruber lives—tragedies Mackall imagines could be prevented if only the group allowed "slow moving vehicle" signs on the buggies.

After ten years of friendship, Mackall broached the idea of a book with Samuel. To his surprise, Samuel okayed it. "He said to me, 'With you I think we can get a fair shot,'" Mackall said, noting that many in their rural Ohio community are hostile toward the Amish. Yet Mackall didn't shy away from difficult topics, writing about the longing for "English" life that drove Samuel's nephew, Jonas, to leave the Amish—and break the heart of his family.

Mackall recently gave Samuel a copy of the published book. "I'm sure he's hidden it in his house so no other Amish can see it."