The Dearly Beloved: A Novel

The Dearly Beloved: A Novel

â€œThis gentle, gorgeously written book may be one of my favorites ever.â€ â€”Jenna Bush Hager (A Today show â€œRead with Jennaâ€ Book Club Selection!)

â€œA moving portrait of love and friendship set against a backdrop of social change.â€ â€”The New York Times Book Review (Editorâ€™s Choice)

â€œHere is the power of the novel in its simplest, richest form: bearing intimate witness to human beings grappling with their faith and falling in love. That Wall executes it so beautifully? Well, this is exactly why we read literary fiction...The best book about faith in recent memory.â€ â€”Entertainment Weekly (A-)

â€œWhen I began reading The Dearly Beloved I braced for piety, worried it might be a book only a believer could appreciate. Instead, I found myself carried along by Cara Wallâ€™s luminous prose, and then by these characters and their stories. I saw myself in their doubts, in their hopes. There is no moralizing here, only empathy. When I arrived at the end I felt absolutely lifted by the spirit of the story.â€ â€”Mary Beth Keane, New York Times bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes

Charles and Lily, James and Nan. They meet in Greenwich Village in 1963 when Charles and James are jointly hired to steward the historic Third Presbyterian Church through turbulent times. Their personal differences however, threaten to tear them apart.

Charles is destined to succeed his father as an esteemed professor of history at Harvard, until an unorthodox lecture about faith leads him to ministry. How then, can he fall in love with Lilyâ€”fiercely intellectual, elegantly sternâ€”after she tells him with certainty that she will never believe in God? And yet, how can he not?

James, the youngest son in a hardscrabble Chicago family, spent much of his youth angry at his alcoholic father and avoiding his anxious mother. Nan grew up in Mississippi, the devout and beloved daughter of a minister and a debutante. Jamesâ€™s escape from his desperate circumstances leads him to Nan and, despite his skepticism of hope in all its forms, her gentle, constant faith changes the course of his life.

In The Dearly Beloved, we follow these two couples through decades of love and friendship, jealousy and understanding, forgiveness and commitment. Against the backdrop of turbulent changes facing the city and the churchâ€™s congregation, these four forge improbable paths through their evolving relationships, each struggling with uncertainty, heartbreak, and joy. A poignant meditation on faith and reason, marriage and children, and the ways we find meaning in our lives, Cara Wallâ€™s The Dearly Beloved is a gorgeous, wise, and provocative novel that is destined to become a classic.
Country USA
Brand Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books
Binding Hardcover
ItemPartNumber rough front; 1-C endpapers
ReleaseDate 2019-08-13
UnitCount 1
Format Deckle Edge
EANs 9781982104528

Country	USA
Brand	Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer	S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books
Binding	Hardcover
ItemPartNumber	rough front; 1-C endpapers
ReleaseDate	2019-08-13
UnitCount	1
Format	Deckle Edge
EANs	9781982104528

The Dearly Beloved: A Novel

You might also like...