The new novel from the award-winning author of Golfing with God and Revere Beach Boulevard is the story of a young Catholic woman jolted from a quietly devout life in Boston by a miraculous call to action.
Cynthia Piantedosi lives a quiet, unassuming life with her elderly father just outside of Boston. When she loses her beloved grandmother as a child, her faith takes a turn for the devout, and she begins experiencing what she describes as "spells"—moments of such intense prayer that she loses herself. Uninterested in boys and a social life, she develops a deep friendship with the parish priest, whose ideas are often seen as too provocative by his congregation but who encourages her to explore her spells. When he dies in a suspicious hit-and-run accident, the spells intensify, and their message begins to take shape: God is asking her to be the first female Catholic priest. She reaches out to other unreceptive officials within the Catholic establishment and is met with ridicule. Unable to tune out the divine messages, she leaves behind all that she knows, letting the power of her unswerving faith drive her all the way to the Vatican in pursuit of a destiny she doesn't fully understand—and a turn of events that will rock the church to its foundation.
Roland Merullo is the author of more than twenty works of fiction and nonfiction, including The Talk-Funny Girl, winner of an Alex Award; Vatican Waltz, a Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2013 pick; Lunch with Buddha, selected as one of Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2013; Revere Beach Boulevard, named one of the “Top 100 Essential Books of New England” by the Boston Globe; and Revere Beach Elegy, winner of the Massachusetts Book Award for nonfiction. Born in Boston and raised in Revere, Massachusetts, he attended Brown University, where he obtained a bachelor of arts in Russian studies and a master of arts in Russian language and literature. He is a former Peace Corps volunteer and has also made his living as a carpenter, college professor, and cabdriver. For more information, visit www.rolandmerullo.com.
Cassandra Campbell has recorded nearly two hundred audiobooks and directed many more. She has been nominated for and won multiple Audie Awards, as well as the prestigious Odyssey Award. She has received numerous starred audio reviews in both Publishers Weekly and Library Journal and more than twenty AudioFile Earphones Awards. Cassandra was also named a Best Voice by AudioFile for 2009 and 2010.