Timepiece - Hardcover

Richard Paul Evans

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684816539 ISBN 13: 9780684816531

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1996

Synopsis

"Of all, clockmakers and morticians should bear the keenest sense of priority-their lives daily spent in observance of the unflagging procession of time... and the end thereof."
-DAVID PARKIN'S DIARY. JANUARY 3, 1901

So begins Timepiece, the unforgettable story of hope and the source of the wisdom MaryAnne Parkin shared with Richard in The Christmas Box. With the help of David Parkin's diary, Richard discovers the mystery of the timepiece and the significance of MaryAnne's request.

Nineteen years previous, only eleven days before her death, MaryAnne Parkin had bequeathed a beautiful rose-gold timepiece to my keeping.

"The day before you give Jenna away," she had said, her voice trembling as she handed me the heirloom, "give this to her for the gift."

I was puzzled by her choice of words.

"Her wedding gift?" I asked.

She looked at me sadly, then forced a fragile smile.

"You will know what I mean."

About this title

About the Author:

Richard Paul Evans is the bestselling author of The Christmas Box. He lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with his wife, Keri, and their three daughters, Jenna, Allyson, and Abigail. He is currently working on his next novel.

From Kirkus Reviews:

The prequel to Evans's mega bestseller, The Christmas Box, is longer than the earlier book, has its same cartoony thinness, is just as creaky at the joints--and reveals, if anything, a considerable rise in the tears-per-page ratio. We go back to Salt Lake City, this time to 1908, when David Parkin--thoughtful and sensitive person, millionaire head of Parkin Machinery Co., and collector of clocks--hires as his secretary one MaryAnne Chandler, the young woman (originally from England) destined to become David's wife, to live in his big mansion, and, in time, to become the benevolent, devout, mysteriously wise widow of The Christmas Box. How MaryAnne achieved such wisdom (quick answer: through suffering a lot) is the real subject of this book, and Evans out-Dickenses Dickens in his facile uses of melodrama in getting to his desired end. In Evans's world of tears and truth, people are by and large either all good or all bad, and if MaryAnne's perfections include being attractive, spunky, quick, principled, courageous, loving, and morally unwavering, the qualities of the base and degenerate villains who reduce her life to ashes are her perfect opposites not in some but all ways (``The men entered clumsily, growling in foul and guttural tones, drunk with whiskey and hatred''). In the beginning, there will be marriage, birth, and immeasurable happiness; and then, with purest villainy as its catalyst, there will be profound and equally immeasurable sorrow. But the healing spirit of human love and hope and goodness will not be destroyed entirely, living on in the muted but unquenchable goodness of MaryAnne's heart; in Evans's perfectly choreographed little flurry of symbols at the close; and even in the transformation of one of those pure villains into purely sensitive penitent. Certain handkerchief heaven for many, while others may experience the stirring of--well, let's just say other feelings. (First printing of 500,000; author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0684816539
• ISBN 13: 9780684816531
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 236