Chloe and Cal Tobias are both caught up in their daily
lives. Cal operates a fishing charter business in the Gulf
of Mexico in Florida and Chloe is a talented artist,
restoring old valuable oil paintings. Their marriage is
seemly disintegrating with their differences of opinion on
raising their son, Marshall, a college student, and their
12-year-old daughter, Meghan.
During college break, Chloe and Cal are surprised by a
visit from Marshall accompanied by Ada, a mysterious girl
with strange ideas of religion. The whole Tobias family
finds their lives falling apart when Meghan is
intentionally given a small amount of peanut butter while
taking a boat excursion with Ada and Marshall -- in spite
knowledge that Meghan is highly allergic to it. Complete
chaos occurs when Meghan falls into an anaphylactic state
and slips into a coma.
When Ada and Marshall are arrested for child endangerment
and then released on bond, they decide to run. Torn between
loyalty to their son and terror of the possibility of
Meghan's death caused by Marshall's stupidity, the family
is forced to examine their faith and the limits of their
ability to forgive.
Kristy Kiernan is an extremely sensitive and
brilliant writer who's woven a very tender and
heartbreaking story of loyalty, love, faith and survival.
She portrays the strength in the characters and the
conflict that a parent endures if inflicted with the
circumstances facing Chloe and Cal. The reader is drawn
into the turmoil and heartbreaking decisions made by the
entire family with clear views of each character. This is a
highly recommended read.
From the author of Catching Genius, a novel of a
young man’s search for faith—and its unintended
consequences.
At age twelve, Marshall Tobias
saw his best friend killed by a train. It was then that he
began his search for faith—delving into one tradition,
then discarding it for another. His parents, however, have
little time for spiritual contemplation. Their focus has
been on his little sister Megan, who suffers from severe
food allergies. Now Marshall is home from college with his
first real girlfriend, but there is more to Ada than meets
the eye—including her beliefs about the evils of medical
intervention. What follows is a crisis that tests not only
faith, but the limits of family, forgiveness, and our need
to believe.