Mary and O'Neil - Tapa dura

A series of ten interconnecting stories trace the lives and continually evolving relationship of Mary and O'Neil, two vulnerable young people, as they make their way from early adulthood, through marriage and parenthood, to beyond and make their peace with the emotional legacies that haunt them both. 20,000 first printing.

ork of fiction that celebrates the uncommon in common lives, and the redemptive power of love.

Mary and O'Neil frequently marveled at how, of all the lives they might have led, they had somehow found this one together. When they met at the Philadelphia high school where they'd come to teach, each had suffered a profound loss that had not healed. How likely was it that they could learn to trust, much less love, again?

In Justin Cronin's tender, heartwise debut, eight stories trace the lives of these two vulnerable young people as they rediscover in each other a world alive with promise and hope.

From the formative experiences of their early adulthood to marriage, parenthood, and beyond, each chapter illuminates the moments of grace that enable Mary and O'Neil to make peace with the deep emotional legacies that haunt them: the sudden, mysterious death of O'Neil's parents, Mary's long-ago decision to end a pregnancy, O'Neil's sister's battle with illness and a