ONE OF GLAMOUR'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
""This masterful novel combines readable, lyrical prose with a compelling plot and complex characters. . . . Wisdom weaves these tangled threads with overarching themes of how the patriarchy controls womenâs minds and bodies."" âBooklist (Starred Review)
The acclaimed author of We Can Only Save Ourselves returns with an urgent and unsettling story that journeys into the heart of religious fanaticism and cult behavior as it probes one womanâs struggle to define life on her own terms.
âHere comes trouble,â Rosemaryâs high school English teacher used to say whenever he saw her. Rosemary has often felt like trouble, and now at thirty-two, her marriage to her college sweetheart, Paul, is crumbling. In a last-ditch attempt to restore it, she agrees to give herself over to a newly formed Christian sect in central Texas, run by charismatic young pastor Papa Jake.
While Paul acclimates quickly to the small town of Dawson and the churchâs insistence on a strict set of puritanical rules, Rosemary struggles to fit in. She finds purpose only when sheâs called upon to help Julie, a new mother in the community, who is feeling isolated and lost.
Then the community is rocked by a series of fires which take some church membersâ homes and nearly take their lives, but which Papa Jake says are holy and a representation of Godâs will.
As the fires spread, and Julie is betrayed in a terrible way, Rosemary begins to question the reality of her life, and wonders if trouble will always find herâor if sheâll ever be able to outrun it.