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Title details for The Girl Who Slept With God by Val Brelinski - Available

The Girl Who Slept With God

A Novel

by Val Brelinski
Abby Craden
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
“Fine, carefully wrought . . . reading this novel [is] a heartening experience.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Brelinski’s page-turning debut is full of humor, insight, and imaginative sympathy. Think of it as the annunciation of a new talent.” —The Wall Street Journal
“A revelation.” —Vanity Fair
“[Brelinski] had readers hooked from page 1.” —Elle

For Fans of Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You and Meg Wolitzer’s The Interestings, an entrancing literary debut about religion, science, secrets, and the power and burden of family from recent Wallace Stegner Fellow Val Brelinski

Set in Arco, Idaho, in 1970, Val Brelinski’s powerfully affecting first novel tells the story of three sisters: young Frances, gregarious and strong-willed Jory, and moral-minded Grace. Their father, Oren, is a respected member of the community and science professor at the local college. Yet their mother’s depression and Grace’s religious fervor threaten the seemingly perfect family, whose world is upended when Grace returns from a missionary trip to Mexico and discovers she’s pregnant with—she believes—the child of God.
Distraught, Oren sends Jory and Grace to an isolated home at the edge of the town. There, they prepare for the much-awaited arrival of the baby while building a makeshift family that includes an elderly eccentric neighbor and a tattooed social outcast who drives an ice cream truck.
The Girl Who Slept with God is a literary achievement about a family’s desperate need for truth, love, purity, and redemption.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 4, 2015

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781101914700
      • File size: 436025 KB
      • Duration: 15:08:23

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Lexile® Measure: 820
    • Text Difficulty: 3-4

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      June 1, 2015
      In the summer of 1970, just before her 14th birthday, Jory Quanbeck’s father deposits her, along with her sister, Grace, in a small house on the outskirts of Arco, Idaho. As Jory later attempts to explain the situation to their elderly neighbor, Mrs. Kleinfelter, “We’re having some family problems.” Those problems, viewed through Jory’s eyes, are at the center of Brelinski’s intriguing story of a close evangelical Christian family. At age 17, Grace has embraced witnessing for her faith, and she travels with other Garden of Gethsemane Church members on a mission to Mexico. But she is sent home early, pregnant with (she insists) the child of God. Without parental guidance and without Grace paying much attention, Jory makes some bad teenage choices, especially in befriending Grip, the drug-dealing ice cream truck driver, as she tries to make sense of what’s happened to Grace. In her debut novel, Brelinski makes Jory’s solitude nearly palpable and dissects the dynamics of family through Jory’s life on the fringe of society, and the result is fascinating. Agent: P.J. Mark, Janklow & Nesbit Associates.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrator Abby Craden is excellent at differentiating the dialogue of the three complicated sisters in Brelinski's debut novel. In 1970, in Idaho, Grace's father sends her and one of her sisters to live in an isolated farmhouse after she comes home from a missionary trip to Mexico believing that she's pregnant with God's child. Craden gives each unique girl her own voice, complementing their characters and their story of struggle with religion and family. Frances's youthful timbre, Jory's angsty tone, and Grace's soft volume serve to differentiate the girls beautifully. She also uses pauses to heighten the pathos in this heartbreaking story. D.Z. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:820
  • Text Difficulty:3-4

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