Absent a Miracle: A Novel

By: Christine Lehner

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Synopsis: An ex–talk show host, her cheating husband, and a plot to canonize a friend&’s Nicaraguan aunt make for &“pure, unadulterated adulterous entertainment&” (The New York Times). Lapsed Catholic Alice Fairweather is searching for meaning. Having lost her ideal job as a radio talk show host who interprets dreams, hopelessly in love with a husband who loves too many other women, and stuck in upstate New York with her sons and dogs, one of whom is ill, her life isn&’t exactly what she envisioned as a young girl. So when Abelardo, her husband&’s former roommate, comes to visit on a quest to make his aunt the first Nicaraguan saint, it feels like a sign. Suddenly, Alice finds herself on a madcap mission to canonize a woman she&’s never met, becoming intimately acquainted with the history of female sainthood, striking up an odd friendship with the eccentric head of New York&’s hagiography club, and traveling to Nicaragua on a last-minute flight. Equal parts moving and hilarious, Absent a Miracle is a quirky and sharp look at love, loss, identity, faith, marriage, and—of course—sainthood.