Matters of Faith

Coming in August 2008

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Kristy Kiernan made a stunning debut with Catching Genius, her compelling depiction of two sisters facing their mutual past. Now she explores the life of a boy whose search for faith threatens to drive his family apart.

At age twelve, Marshall Tobias saw his best friend killed by a train. It was then that he began his search for faith; delving into one tradition, then discarding it for another. While his parents were at odds over his behavior, they found common ground with his little sister Meghan, whose severe food allergies required careful attention.

Now Marshall is home from college with his first real girlfriend. Meghan is thrilled to have her around, but there is more to Ada than meets the eye—including her beliefs about the evils of medical intervention. What follows is a crisis that tests not only faith, but the limits of family, forgiveness, and our need to believe.

Advance Praise for Matters of Faith

"Kristy Kiernan's "Matters of Faith" was so good and true and real that I forgot I was reading a book. I felt as though I was standing helplessly beside good people whose ordinary family life is slowly, inexorably tumbling into the darkness of the unknown."

—Jacquelyn Mitchard, New York Times bestselling author of The Deep End of the Ocean and All We Know of Heaven

Catching Genius

Now available

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Reader's Guide

In this hauntingly beautiful, lyrical debut, two estranged sisters struggle to define their relationship, as they confront long-buried childhood memories and family secrets.

As children, the Sykes sisters—Connie and Estella—were unassuming, precocious, and very close, until one sister was discovered to be a math prodigy. Estella, pushed to focus on her gift, fell into her father’s favor, leaving Connie to grow up in her shadow. Connie, the “normal” little sister, became defined by her beauty rather than her intellect. Now years later, at the request of their mother, the sisters are forced to reunite on the Gulf Coast of Florida as they pack up their childhood summer home and ready it for sale. The reunion comes at a time of crisis, in which both Connie and Estella must come to terms with painful revelations and devastating consequences. And once again, her sister’s genius may alter Connie’s life in ways she can not control…