Fiction

Maggie

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When Maggie opened her eyes that New Year's Day some seventeen months ago, I felt like I could see again. The fog lifted off my soul, and for the first time since our son had died and she had gone to sleep–some four months, sixteen days, eighteen hours, and nineteen minutes earlier–I took a breath deep enough to fill both of my lungs.

"I watched her—the way her shoulders moved with the tilt of her head, how her smile lit up the six people around her, how her hair, tucked behind her ears, framed her face like baby’s breath. I thought about how the sound of her heart beating sounded the rhythm for our dance atop the magnolia floor. I wanted to tell her all this, but didn’t know how. Just because something is broken doesn’t mean it’s no good. Doesn’t mean you throw it away. It just means it’s broken, and broken is okay. I wanted to tell her that broken is still beautiful, still works, still wakes me in the morning, and at the end of every day past and those to come, I can love broken."

One of Martin's many strengths is in his rich portrayals of people…the ending laudably offers hope and redemption without too-neat resolution.

Publisher's Weekly

Charles Martin has once again created some incredible characters that speak to readers with whispers of fear, shouts of excitement and a glorious outpouring of healing laughter. Fiction has never felt so real...How is Charles Martin able to take mere words and breathe such vibrant life into them? These pages actually pulse with the passion of these characters as they step into difficult and emotionally charged situations...At times it feels as if this novel truly breaks through the pages to rest in the realm of reality. Each character is drawn with an artist's attention to detail, beauty and purpose. Readers won't want the story to end.

Sharyn McGinty – In the Library Reviews