The Abbey: A Story of Discovery

by James Martin

Overview

In the tradition of the spiritual classics The Shack and The Screwtape Letters comes a captivating and poignant debut novel from the revered Jesuit priest and New York Times bestselling author of Jesus and The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything.

A divorced single mom, Anne can barely cope with life and struggles to make sense of the death of her young son.

A former architect with a promising career, Mark works as a handyman and wonders how his life got off track.

The abbot of the Abbey of Saints Philip and James, Father Paul sometimes questions whether he made the right decision in secluding himself so thoroughly from the world.

At this Pennsylvania abbey, this unlikely trio will discover the answers they seek—a miracle of hope and understanding that bears witness to the power of God to bring healing and wholeness to our lives.

Written with the compassion, insight, and warmth of his previous bestsellers—Jesus, Between Heaven and Mirth, and The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything—Father James Martin’s debut novel is infused with deep spiritual wisdom, wry humor, and loving grace. Through his characters’ struggles, questions, and crises, we see firsthand how God uses our worries, anger, doubts, prayers, failures, and longings to help us complete ourselves and feel wholly loved.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062416940
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	10/13/2015
Edition description:	Large Print
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.70(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Rev. James Martin, SJ, is a Jesuit priest, editor at large of America magazine, consultor to the Vatican's Secretariat for Communication, and author of numerous books, including the New York Times bestsellers Jesus: A Pilgrimage, The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything and My Life with the Saints, which Publishers Weekly named one of the best books of 2006. Father Martin is a frequent commentator in the national and international media, having appeared on all the major networks, and in such diverse outlets as The Colbert Report, NPR's Fresh Air, the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.  Before entering the Jesuits in 1988 he graduated from the Wharton School of Business.

Editorial Reviews

With this beautiful, touching and utterly believable novel, seekers will be gently invited to encounter the divine and believers be encouraged to deepen their relationships with God. I loved this book and loved the characters!

Richard Rohr

With wit, wisdom and elegant prose, Martin has written a powerfully moving novel about (among other things) how an unbeliever can journey from suffering into spiritual practice. How it happens in an eyeblink. Another triumph from one of our best writers working like a master in a new form.

Mary Karr

A sheer delight—funny, engaging, deep and moving.

Ron Hansen

More than a vivid portrait of a grieving mother; this tender novel shows us how, with simple words and acts, we ordinary, flawed human beings can help each other find our way to God.

Kathleen Norris

Touching, funny and beautiful. A top pick!

RT Book Reviews

Compassionate, engaging…with tender wit and wisdom, Martin offers an in-depth glimpse into committed religious life and how lay people can practice a devout faith amid doubt, anger and questioning.

Shelf Awareness

Martin’s debut novel might be compared to Paulo Coehlo’s popular fiction…Martin’s great achievement here is that the shows how [his characters are] able to have a mystical experience of God as a result of imaginative contemplation, and he succeeds in making it seem entirely natural.

The Tablet

Father Martin’s richly written tale gives us insight into the workings of a modern monastery and shows how God uses our worries, anger and doubts to help bring us to Him.

Simple Grace Magazine

Martin brings his characteristic ease of personality into both the characters and the prose, quickly bringing readers comfortably into the story. He handles the most delicate and painful themes with a pastoral compassion that invites readers to find hope in their own struggles.

The Huffington Post

Unputdownable

Brendan Walsh

A new and improved version of those 18th-century philosophical tales such as Voltaire’s Candide or Dr. Johnson’s Rasselas. . . . What makes it an improvement is that the characters are not literary types, but recognizable persons.

Philly Inquirer

This is a wonderful story of love, loss and finding one’s place in religion lived out. I think we can all find ourselves in one of these characters, relating to their struggles. It’s always the mark of a good book when you are sad for it to end…inspirational reading.

The Catholic Newbie

Martin applies his trademark charm, wit, and intelligence. . . . The result is a delightful and thought-provoking allegory of faith in the modern world.

BookMark from WPSU

What is clear after finishing The Abbey, which this reviewer devoured in one sitting, is just how much Martin truly believes in the often repeated mantra of his nonfiction works, “With God all things are possible”... A splendid novel.

St. Anthony's Messenger

08/10/2015
Popular Jesuit author (Jesus: A Pilgrimage) and media commentator Martin turns to fiction in this warmly comforting tale of a grieving mother who owns a building but has no day-to-day job, a dissatisfied handyman, and an abbot, whose lives come to intersect and are gently changed. Three years after the death of her teenage son in an accident, Anne is stuck in grief. Her tenant Mark works as handyman at an abbey, feeling underemployed and lonely. Father Paul heads the abbey and wonders if he should be an abbot. Anne, whose father once worked for the abbey, is drawn to it after a car breakdown brings her back to the place she visited when a child. Martin offers a simple story about complicated people whose lives need God for direction and healing. His skill as a novelist is fair; the plot is thin but the characters are well drawn. His real strength is his pastoral sensibility—his compassion shines through the character of Father Paul. Like his fellow Jesuit Pope Francis, Martin is a persuasive evangelizer for a God, and church, of mercy. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly