A Peculiar Grace: A Novel - Jeffrey Lent

The acclaimed author's "transcendent story about the healing power of love and art" set in the New England woods-"magisterial and . . . beautifully written" (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

Hewitt Pearce lives alone in his Vermont family home, producing custom ironwork and safeguarding a small collection of art his late father left behind. When Jessica, a troubled young vagabond, washes up in his backwoods one morning, Hewitt's hermetic existence is challenged. As he gradually uncovers Jessica's secrets and reestablishes contact with Emily, a woman he thought he had lost twenty years before, Hewitt must confront his own dark history and rediscover how much he craves human connection.

Rendered in prose that is "lustrous-rich in supple dialogue and finely patterned imagery," A Peculiar Grace is a remarkable achievement by one of our finest authors, an insightful portrait of family secrets, and a rich tapestry filled with characters who have learned to survive by giving shape to their losses ( Booklist).

"Echoing the rhapsodic specificity and gravitas of Steinbeck and Kent Haruf, Lent has constructed a resolute tale of paradise lost and found." - Booklist, starred review

"Jeffrey Lent has quietly created some of the finest novels of our new century." -Ron Rash

"Jeffrey Lent builds characters and their world like a painter layering his canvas, telling his story but substantiating it with color and light." -Tim Pears

"Sentence by sentence rural New England comes alive, and Lent's language draws you in like a clear stream in summer." -Tim Gautreaux