Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Faith by Jennifer Haigh


It is the spring of 2002 and a perfect storm has hit Boston. Across the city’s archdiocese, trusted priests have been accused of the worst possible betrayal of the souls in their care. Estranged for years from her difficult and demanding family, Sheila McGann has remained close to her older brother, Art, the popular, dynamic pastor of a large suburban parish. When Art finds himself at the center of the maelstrom, Sheila returns to Boston, ready to fight for him and his reputation. But what she discovers is more complicated than she imagined as the scandal forces long-buried secrets to surface.
Elegantly crafted and sharply observed, Jennifer Haigh’s Faith is a haunting meditation on loyalty and family that demonstrates how the truth can shatter our deepest beliefs—and restore them.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

The 19th Wife

 

February's book club month is The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff. Below is a summary of the book. We will meet to discuss the book on Monday, February 20 at Noon. Bring your own lunch and we'll provide the dessert and drinks! We will also show the DVD, The 19th Wife, on Tuesday, February 28 at 5:30 in the 1st Floor Meeting Room.
 
Faith, I tell them, is a mystery, elusive to many, and never easy to explain.

Sweeping and lyrical, spellbinding and unforgettable, David Ebershoff’s The 19th Wife combines epic historical fiction with a modern murder mystery to create a brilliant novel of literary suspense.

It is 1875, and Ann Eliza Young has recently separated from her powerful husband, Brigham Young, prophet and leader of the Mormon Church. Expelled and an outcast, Ann Eliza embarks on a crusade to end polygamy in the United States. A rich account of a family’s polygamous history is revealed, including how a young woman became a plural wife.

Soon after Ann Eliza’s story begins, a second exquisite narrative unfolds–a tale of murder involving a polygamist family in present-day Utah. Jordan Scott, a young man who was thrown out of his fundamentalist sect years earlier, must reenter the world that cast him aside in order to discover the truth behind his father’s death.

And as Ann Eliza’s narrative intertwines with that of Jordan’s search, readers are pulled deeper into the mysteries of love and faith.