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The Monk Downstairs: A Novel
by Tim Farrington
- Used
- Paperback
- Condition
- See description
- ISBN 10
- 0062517864
- ISBN 13
- 9780062517869
- Seller
-
Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Rebecca Martin is a single mother with an apartment to rent and a sense that she has used up her illusions. I had the romantic thing with my first husband, thank you very much, she tells a hapless suitor. I'm thirty-eight years old, and I've got a daughter learning to read and a job I don't quite like. I don't need the violin music. But when the new tenant in her in-law apartment turns out to be Michael Christopher, on the lam after twenty years in a monastery and smack dab in the middle of a dark night of the soul, Rebecca begins to suspect that she is not as thoroughly disillusioned as she had thought.
Her daughter, Mary Martha, is delighted with the new arrival, as is Rebecca's mother, Phoebe, a rollicking widow making a new life for herself among the spiritual eccentrics of the coastal town of Bolinas. Even Rebecca's best friend, Bonnie, once a confirmed cynic in matters of the heart, urges Rebecca on. But none of them, Rebecca feels, understands how complicated and dangerous love actually is.
As her unlikely friendship with the ex-monk grows toward something deeper, and Michael wrestles with his despair while adjusting to a second career flipping hamburgers at McDonald's, Rebecca struggles with her own temptation to hope. But it is not until she is brought up short by the realities of life and death that she begins to glimpse the real mystery of love, and the unfathomable depths of faith.
Beautifully written and playfully engaging, this novel. is about one man wrestling with his yearning for a life of contemplation and the need for a life of action in the world. But it's Rebecca's spirit, as well as her relationships with Mary Martha, Phoebe, her irresponsible surfer ex-husband Rory -- and, of course, the monk downstairs -- that makes this story shine.
Tim Farrington is the author of Lizzie's War, The Monk Downstairs,—a New York Times Notable Book—and The Monk Upstairs, as well as the critically acclaimed novels The California Book of the Dead and Blues for Hannah.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Janson Books (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 316162125
- Title
- The Monk Downstairs: A Novel
- Author
- Tim Farrington
- Format/Binding
- New
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10
- 0062517864
- ISBN 13
- 9780062517869
- Publisher
- HarperOne; Reprint edition (July 1, 2003)
- Place of Publication
- New York, New York, U.s.a.
- This edition first published
- July 1, 2003
Terms of Sale
Janson Books
30 day return guarantee, with refund minus original shipping costs for up to 30 days after scheduled delivery date if an item arrives significantly damaged. We use USPS Media Mail to keep our costs as low as possible (All Media Mail includes tracking but no insurance). Please request an additional $5 insurance premium on any shipment that you would like insured against any loss. USPS is highly reliable so insurance is generally not cost effective for low priced books. We use USPS for all of our shipping and offer shipping only within the United States at this time. Shipping to outside of the US can not be provided at this time. For purchases made by non-US customers please specify a US shipping address/contact that could forward the book to you.
About the Seller
Janson Books
Biblio member since 2015
Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania
About Janson Books
Covers a broad range of fiction, biographies, general sciences with some concentration in a variety of biomedical and chemical science titles which reflect the owner's lifetime interests.
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- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...