“This gentle, gorgeously written book may be one of my favorites ever.” —Jenna Bush Hager (A Today show “Read with Jenna” Book Club Selection!)
This “moving portrait of love and friendship set against a backdrop of social change” (The New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Choice) traces two married couples whose lives become entangled when the husbands become copastors at a famed New York city congregation in the 1960s.
Charles and Lily, James and Nan. They meet in Greenwich Village in 1963 when Charles and James are jointly hired to steward the historic Third Presbyterian Church through turbulent times. Their personal differences however, threaten to tear them apart.
Charles is destined to succeed his father as an esteemed professor of history at Harvard, until an unorthodox lecture about faith leads him to ministry. How then, can he fall in love with Lily—fiercely intellectual, elegantly stern—after she tells him with certainty that she will never believe in God? And yet, how can he not?
James, the youngest son in a hardscrabble Chicago family, spent much of his youth angry at his alcoholic father and avoiding his anxious mother. Nan grew up in Mississippi, the devout and beloved daughter of a minister and a debutante. James’s escape from his desperate circumstances leads him to Nan and, despite his skepticism of hope in all its forms, her gentle, constant faith changes the course of his life.
In The Dearly Beloved, Cara wall reminds us of “the power of the novel in its simplest, richest form: bearing intimate witness to human beings grappling with their faith and falling in love,” (Entertainment Weekly, A-) as we follow these two couples through decades of love and friendship, jealousy and understanding, forgiveness and commitment. Against the backdrop of turbulent changes facing the city and the church’s congregation, Wall offers a poignant meditation on faith and reason, marriage and children, and the ways we find meaning in our lives. The Dearly Beloved is a gorgeous, wise, and provocative novel that is destined to become a classic.
I received a copy of The Dearly Beloved in exchange for a fair and honest review.
The Dearly Beloved is the debut novel of Cara Well. It’s also irrefutable proof that sometimes a work of love can truly turn into something great. Cara Well spent fifteen years working on this novel to get it to this point. And it truly shows. This is a poignant and touching novel, written beautifully and polished to shine. The novel is set in the 1950s and follows two couples through their journeys and interactions with one another. The first couple are two opposites destined for one another; Charles a believer through and through, with an unshakable faith in his religion; and Lily, a determined non-believer yet sweet and tenacious. Then there’s the second couple, a pair who are also a perfect match; James, a minister intent to do everything he can to save and help others; and Nan, a religious woman who is kind and caring. These four find themselves crossing paths with increasing frequency thanks to their paths in life. The story follows them from their earlier years up through to the bittersweet moments – and everything in between. It’s a novel that studies human nature and interaction. It’s sweet, it’s beautiful. And at times it’s heartbreaking. But it is never anything but perfectly honest. I honestly don’t normally read books with such a heavy religious tone, but there was something about Cara Well’s writing that captivated me. It was all so beautifully written that I couldn’t do anything but read on. And I’m so very glad I did.
