Kindred Spirits

Christopher Kimball Bigelow

Jan 2007 · Zarahemla Books

About this ebook

Born and bred in the heart of Mormon Utah, thirty-something Eliza Spainhower has carved out an independent life for herself in Boston. While still believing in the faith of her childhood, she has recently fallen into fornication and been disfellowshipped from the LDS Church.

Trying to repent, she connects with local native Eric Abercrombie on the subway, and soon she's prodding him in a race against hormones as the couple navigates Mormon baptism-and-wedding hurdles.

Further complicating matters are Eric's adopted daughter Manda, his bossy ex-wife Helen, and Manda's Wiccan birth mother Kindra, all three of whom live together. As Eliza tries to establish her place in Eric's improbable clan, she's forced to reckon with her Mormon identity and her sometimes-overactive religious imagination in unsettling new ways.

Her journey of spiritual and physical passion is fraught with frottage, Mormon-style guilt, otherworldly visions, ministrations of evil spirits, and culture clashes between Mormonism and Wiccanism, all shot through with simmering intimations of polygamy that eventually reach a crisis point.

About the author

The great-great-great-grandson of a Mormon apostle with more than forty wives, Christopher Kimball Bigelow served a mission in Melbourne, Australia, and worked as an editor at the LDS Church's Ensign magazine. A graduate of Emerson College and Brigham Young University, he cofounded and edited the Mormon literary magazine Irreantum and the satirical Mormon news source The Sugar Beet. Books written, coauthored, or edited by Bigelow include Mormonism For Dummies, The Mormon Tabernacle Enquirer, Conversations with Mormon Authors, and The Timechart History of Mormonism. A Hodgkin's disease survivor and the oldest of ten siblings, he lives with his wife and five children in Provo, Utah. His personal blog is located at ckbigelow.blogspot.com, and he can be reached at chris [e-mail].