Can You See Anything Now?: A Novel (Paraclete Fiction) - Softcover

James, Katherine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1612619312 ISBN 13: 9781612619316

Publisher: Paraclete Press, 2017

Synopsis

Winner of the Christianity Today 2018 Fiction Book Award

Can You See Anything Now?, a debut novel, follows a year in the small town of Trinity where the tragedy and humility of a few reveal the reality of people’s motivations and desires.
 
This is a story without veneer, and for readers who prefer reality to sanitized fiction—this book is unsentimental, and yet grace-filled.
 
The characters here are complex and intriguing—the suicidal painter, Margie, who has been teaching her evangelical neighbor, Etta, how to paint nudes; her husband, the town therapist, who suspects his work helps no one; and their college-aged daughter Noel—whose roommate, Pixie, joins them at home for a winter holiday.

Author Katherine James' memoir, Notes On Orion, will also be published in 2018.  

About this title

About the Author

Katherine James has an MFA from Columbia University where she received the Felipe P. De Alba merit fellowship and taught undergraduate fiction.

Review

"In this marvelous debut, James somehow masters an effortlessly omniscient voice—as unsentimental yet grace-filled as the gaze of God. If you loved Ann Patchett's Bel Canto, you'll love James' New England town of Trinity and its utterly human, utterly ruined, utterly lovable characters."
—Sarah Arthur, preliminary fiction judge for the CT Book Awards and editor of Between Midnight and Dawn: A Literary Guide to Prayer for Lent, Holy Week, and Eastertide
 
“An exquisitely well-crafted story with unforgettable characters. She writes like a master artist paints—every sentence is like a brushstroke on a canvas—revealing and illuminating. She truly understands the complexities of the human condition—both joy and sorrow, love and loss, faith and unbelief. A gem.”
—Jim Kraus, award-winning bestselling author of The Dog That Talked to God
 
"If you're a redemption chaser, you'll love this book. If you hate redemption stories, you're going to love this book. How can one woman know so much about the fractured human heart and the mysteries of faith? Katherine James just might be a genius."
—Leslie Leyland Fields, author of Crossing the Waters: Following Jesus through the Storms, the Fish, the Doubt and the Seas
 
"James casts a compassionate yet unflinching eye on the inhabitants of Trinity, a small town that could be anywhere in America. She reveals their hopes and dreams, their fears and loves and flaws; she shows us how even the most ordinary lives are touched not only with tragedy but with unexpected grace. This is a novel which will open your eyes to your neighbors and make you see them as God sees them—dappled with shadow and light."
—Suzanne M. Wolfe, author of The Confessions of X, Suzanne M. Wolfe, author of The Confessions of X, winner of Christianity Today’s 2017 Fiction Award.

"With this debut novel, Katherine James has achieved a polyphonic chorus, an array of characters whose several stories acquire a compelling coherence, a single story manifesting how one might offer due attention to the world by way of due attention to the worlds within."
 —Scott Cairns, author of The End of Suffering and Slow Pilgrim: The Collected Poems

About this edition

• Publisher: Paraclete Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1612619312
• ISBN 13: 9781612619316
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256