Dear James - Softcover

Hassler, Jon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345410130 ISBN 13: 9780345410139

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1995

Synopsis

Her teaching career at an end, Miss Agatha McGee leaves Staggerford for Italy, where she renews a long-standing love affair with Father James O'Hannon of Ireland, while tragedy looms back home

About this title

From the Back Cover

“Characters so exquisitely rendered that even a first-time visitor to Staggerford will come to love them as old friends.”
--New York Times Book Review
“A deliciously rich, simmering brew of envy, charity and redemptive love.”
--Publishers Weekly
“Old-fashioned storytelling at its best.”
--Kirkus Reviews
Personal and public crises descend on Agatha Magee in her 70th year. The feisty, quick-witted, fiercely Catholic spinster travels to Italy and Ireland to shake off the malaise of a forced retirement. There, against the backdrop of IRA and Islamic terrorism, she confronts the love of her life, a priest who has betrayed her by concealing his clerical identity. Back home in Staggerford, Minnesota, two spiteful acquaintances smear Agatha’s good name with malicious stories. With the sure touch of a narrative master, Jon Hassler blends gentle satire and acute insight in a compelling story of loss, forgiveness, and renewal.

“Characters so exquisitely rendered that even a first-time visitor to Staggerford will come to love them as old friends.”
--New York Times Book Review
“A deliciously rich, simmering brew of envy, charity and redemptive love.”
--Publishers Weekly
“Old-fashioned storytelling at its best.”
--Kirkus Reviews
Personal and public crises descend on Agatha Magee in her 70th year. The feisty, quick-witted, fiercely Catholic spinster travels to Italy and Ireland to shake off the malaise of a forced retirement. There, against the backdrop of IRA and Islamic terrorism, she confronts the love of her life, a priest who has betrayed her by concealing his clerical identity. Back home in Staggerford, Minnesota, two spiteful acquaintances smear Agatha’s good name with malicious stories. With the sure touch of a narrative master, Jon Hassler blends gentle satire and acute insight in a compelling story of loss, forgiveness, and renewal.

About the Author

Jon Hassler (1933–2008) was an award-winning author of eleven novels, including Dear James and North of Hope, two story collections, and three plays. He has been described as "a writer good enough to restore your faith in fiction" by The New York Times Book Review and "one of America’s most completely satisfying novelists" by The Cleveland Plain Dealer.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0345410130
• ISBN 13: 9780345410139
• Binding: Paperback