{"product_id":"the-dearly-beloved-9781982104528","title":"The Dearly Beloved","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"This gentle, gorgeously written book may be one of my favorites ever.\" --Jenna Bush Hager (A \u003ci\u003eToday \u003c\/i\u003eshow \"Read with Jenna\" Book Club Selection )\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A thoughtful, beautiful multigenerational novel about love, God, jealousy, and friendship.\" --Elizabeth Gilbert, author of\u003ci\u003e Eat, Pray, Love\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A moving portrait of love and friendship set against a backdrop of social change.\" --\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review \u003c\/i\u003e(Editor's Choice)\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Here 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.\" --\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly \u003c\/i\u003e(A-)\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCharles 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCharles 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 Lily--fiercely intellectual, elegantly stern--after she tells him with certainty that she will never believe in God? And yet, how can he not? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eJames, 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. James'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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Dearly Beloved\u003c\/i\u003e, 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 church'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 Wall's \u003ci\u003eThe Dearly Beloved\u003c\/i\u003e is a gorgeous, wise, and provocative novel that is destined to become a classic.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWall, Cara:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Cara Wall is a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop and Stanford University. While at Iowa, Cara taught fiction writing in the undergraduate creative writing department as well as at the Iowa Young Writer's Studio in her capacity of founder and inaugural director. She went on to teach middle school English and History, and has been published by \u003ci\u003eGlamour\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSalon, \u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe San Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e. She lives in New York City with her family.","brand":"S\u0026s\/ Marysue Rucci Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50493345431826,"sku":"9781982104528","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_8ed908e2-d46a-4dc8-9263-dad575b44c11.jpg?v=1730644781","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-dearly-beloved-9781982104528","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}