The Monk Upstairs: A Novel - Hardcover

Farrington, Tim

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060815167 ISBN 13: 9780060815165

Publisher: HarperOne, 2007

Synopsis

When Rebecca Martin finds the love of her life, it's finally time to cross off one giant task from life's to-do list. But not so fast. The wedding is a minor disaster, the honeymoon doesn't get much better, and then the biggest shock of all—living together as monk and wife.

Rebecca couldn't help falling in love with a monk, but that doesn't make it any easier. Mike is up before the sun, meditates every morning in bed, hates socializing (not to mention all varieties of small talk), and last but not least has a rich inner life with which she can't compete. When God is essentially the other women, all bets are off. What has she gotten herself into?

Returning with the same cast of characters that made The Monk Downstairs a New York Times Notable Book and a two-time BookSense top-ten pick, The Monk Upstairs is a page-turning love story that pulls back the curtain on fairy-tale romance to reveal what really happens when two people from very different walks of life fall in love, get married, and live under the same roof.

About this title

About the Author:

Tim Farrington is the author of Lizzie's War, The Monk Downstairs,—a New York Times Notable Book—and The Monk Upstairs, as well as the critically acclaimed novels The California Book of the Dead and Blues for Hannah.

From Publishers Weekly:

Gentle humor leavens the weightier themes of trust, religion and second chances in this satisfying sequel to The Monk Downstairs (2002). Tough-as-nails divorcée Rebecca Martin eases into married life with former monk and tenant Mike Christopher while she wonders just what they've gotten themselves into. Her pot-smoking ex-husband is trying to reform and be a responsible father, but his inability to follow through adds extra tension to Rebecca and Mike's newlywed life. Farrington beautifully renders the touching relationships between Mike and his young stepdaughter, Mary Martha, and his mother-in-law, Phoebe, whose mental acuity is steadily declining after a stroke in the previous novel. Mike's struggle to reconcile his contemplative nature with his new responsibilities (and Rebecca's disdain for religion) is engagingly portrayed as escapes to the attic to meditate. When Mary Martha decides she wants to attend mass with Mike, Rebecca's conflicts intensify; "It wasn't that she was opposed to God, per se. She just didn't want His damn church screwing with her daughter's head." Farrington has a knack for unusual descriptions, such as mid-week morning mass, a "wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am affair, like framing work in carpentry.... They left the interior decoration and finish work for Sundays." A poignant death scene ensures readers will reach for the Kleenex. Farrington's talent blossoms in this engaging novel. (May)
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About this edition

• Publisher: HarperOne
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0060815167
• ISBN 13: 9780060815165
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272