Catholic lore, American tales, and Sicilian superstition blend in this “clever, funny, heartbreaking, and heartwarming” novel (Publishers Weekly). Born with unruly red hair, a sharp tongue, and wine-colored marks all over her body—marks that oddly mimick a map of the world and make her subject to endless ridicule—Garnet Ferrari would hardly consider herself blessed. So when an emissary from the Vatican shows up at her door, convinced that her seeming ability to cure the skin ailments of others qualifies her for sainthood, she’s not quite convinced—or pleased. Garnet sets off on a quest to better understand who she is and where she and her unusual gifts came from. Tracing a twisted path that leads from Sicily to West Virginia, poverty to riches, romance to loss, reality to mythology, Garnet uncovers a truth far more powerful than any dermatological miracle: that the things of which we are most ashamed often become our greatest strengths. “A cleareyed, touching fable of a girl learning the hard truths about herself and others.” —Kirkus Reviews

With its irresistible blend of Southern Gothic and Sicilian malocchio, a lush, exuberant tale of a reluctant saint, her unforgettable family, and the myriad difficulties we all face when it comes to loving and being loved Born in Sweetwater, West Virginia, with a mop of flaming red hair and a map of the world rendered in port-wine stains on every surface of her body, Garnet Ferrari is used to being an outcast. With her sharp tongue, she has always known how to defend herself against bullies and aggressors, but she finds she is less adept at fending off the pilgrims who have set up a veritable tent city outside her hilltop home, convinced that she is Saint Garnet, healer of skin ailments and maker of miracles. Her grandmother, Nonna Diamante, believes that Garnet's mystical gift can be traced back to the family's origins in the Nebrodi Mountains of Sicily, and now the Vatican has sent an emissary to Sweetwater to investigate. Garnet, determined to debunk this "gift," reaches back into her family's tangled past and unspools a story of love triangles on the shores of the Messina Strait; a sad, beautiful maiden's gilded-cage childhood in blueblood Virginia; and the angelic, doomed boy Garnet could not protect. Saint or not, Garnet learns that the line between reality and myth is always blurred, and that the aspects of ourselves we are most ashamed of can prove to be the source of our greatest strength, and even our salvation.

"A joy to read." —New York Times Book Review From beloved bestselling author Ursula Hegi, a new novel about three mothers, set on the shores of the Nordsee, perfect for fans of Water for Elephants and The Light Between Oceans. In the summer of 1878, the Ludwig Zirkus arrives on Nordstrand in Germany, to the delight of the island’s people. But after the show, a Hundred-Year Wave roars from the Nordsee and claims three young children. Three mothers are on the beach when it happens: Lotte, whose children are lost; Sabine, a Zirkus seamstress with her grown daughter; and Tilli, just a girl herself, who will give birth later that day at St. Margaret’s Home for Pregnant Girls. After the tragedy, Lotte’s husband escapes with the Zirkus, while she loses the will to care for their surviving son. Tilli steps in, bonding with him in a way she isn’t allowed to with her own baby, taken away at birth. Sabine, struggling to keep her childlike daughter safe in the world, forms a complicated friendship with Lotte. But the mothers' fragile trio is threatened when Lotte and her husband hatch a dangerous plan to reunite their family, and Tilli and Sabine must try to find a way to pull them back to reality. As full of joy and beauty as it is of pain, and told with the luminous power that has made Ursula Hegi a beloved bestselling author for decades, The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls is a shining testament to the ways in which women hold each other up in the most unexpected of circumstances.

“Wherever there are Christians, everyone should find an oasis of mercy.” —Pope Francis Whether dealing with adoption, sobriety, bullying, the Boston Marathon bombing, or friendship with a Jehovah’s Witness, Mathew Schmalz’s own life serves as the backdrop for his reflections on the complex nature of mercy—how we give it, and how we receive it. From a home for lepers in India to a halfway house in the Bronx, the author probes his experiences to reveal mercy as a virtue that doesn’t necessarily come easily, but is infinitely rewarding. Discussion and reflection questions at the end of each chapter allow you to dig deeper into your own ideas about mercy, what it looks like in your life, and how to move toward a more merciful existence. Perfect for individual or group study.

A professor of church history, Armstrong provides rich portraits of ten people from the past who: translated the gospel for their own times; broke down barriers; ministered out of the brokenness we all share; knew what it feels like to live on the margins; believed in the power of stories to bring transformation through Christ. --from publisher description

Poetry. Sarah Galvin is here, she's queer, and she would like to talk about something else for a moment After taking a break from poetry to write The Best Party of Our Lives, a book of essays about gay marriages, Galvin's back with her second book of poems. In UGLY TIME, developers are transforming her hometown into a white-washed, glass box jungle. She's barely making rent. Her girlfriend just threw her heart in the garbage. Sex with strangers she meets on the internet is great and then empty and then great and then empty again. The 21st century is changing at hyperspeed, and it seems as if no one has time to talk about an old Kate Bush album or to praise "the patron saint of blowing up rotisserie chickens with fireworks" like they use to. But who's that beautiful person dressed head-to-toe in gold velvet? Did she just put Roy Orbison on the jukebox? Could love still be possible in the time of gentrification? And if so, does it redeem human suffering, sort of like, as Galvin writes, when "you step in human shit / while filming porn, / and notice the cherry petals / floating around you like sparks?" In a series of hilarious, tender, hyperreal poems, Galvin explores the paradox of trying to settle down--even for just a second--in a state of permanent impermanence.

What if the annoying person you try to avoid is actually an accidental saint in your life? What if, even in our failings, holy moments are waiting to happen? Nadia Bolz-Weber demonstrates what happens when ordinary people meet to explore the Christian faith. Their faltering steps towards wholeness will ring true for believer and sceptic alike.