A novel that explores the challenge and necessity of loving difficult people.
Angela Morrison has it all. She’s married to a wealthy man, adores her son, grows orchids, and volunteers at Our Daily Bread Food Pantry. What more could she want? More — much more. And she’s willing to risk everything after meeting Carsten, the landscaper with the glacier-blue eyes.
Sister Eileen, who runs Our Daily Bread Food Pantry, struggles with the silence of God and harbours a secret she believes is unforgivable. She yearns to convince Angela she is loved by God, despite her selfishness and destructive behaviour, but in order for that to be authentic Eileen must learn to love her first, and that’s no easy task — especially after Angela causes a terrible tragedy. Through the crucible of their relationship, Angela and Eileen discover how caring for the most difficult among us and practising forgiveness, no matter how painful, opens a door to the miracle of transformation.
Lauren B. Davis is the author of The Grimoire of Kensington Market, Against a Darkening Sky, The Empty Room, Our Daily Bread, and The Radiant City. She has been longlisted for the Giller Prize and the ReLit Awards, and shortlisted for the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Lauren lives in Princeton, New Jersey.
Davis writes authentically ... Even So raises enough moral questions to prompt some spirited discussion among book clubs.
Toronto Star
Davis’ third-person linear narrative is written in succinct, sure-footed prose in the alternating voices of the two protagonists ... Davis’ skill at dialogue makes the reader feel fully present in each of the novel’s vignettes.
Winnipeg Free Press
In her newest offering, Lauren B. Davis turns her considerable talent and deeply empathetic vision to an exploration of passion. Angela, the novel's protagonist, is a character for every reader who sometimes feels not quite at home in her own life, for every woman (or man) who sometimes wants more, for everybody who laments that their world is a little too beige. With profound insight and precision, Davis portrays desire, with its particularly powerful mix of flesh and imagination, and the (sometimes destructive) power of female sexuality. Ultimately, though, Davis's novel extends far beyond the magnetic world of flesh to the miracle of humans' capacity for forgiveness. In Even So, readers experience the divine. You'll want to buy a copy for your best friend too — you're going to need to talk about this one!
Angie Abdou, author of The Bone Cage and This One Wild Life
No one can express the contradictions of the human spirit as well as Lauren B. Davis. We swim in the wisdom of the language and the complexity of emotions. Even So is one woman's spiritual growth from selfishness to compassion to redemption. It is a totally gripping book by a master author.
Stephanie Cowell, author of Nicholas Cooke, Marrying Mozart and Claude & Camille: a novel of Monet
Lauren B. Davis writes perceptively and generously in this well-written, thriller-paced novel of lust and guilt.
Susan Swan, critically-acclaimed author of The Dead Celebrities Club
In Even So, Lauren B. Davis brings enormous compassion and intelligence to her portrayal of characters trying to live right and live fully in this messy, murky yet blazingly redemptive world.
Catherine Bush, author of Blaze Island and The Rules of Engagement
Told with deep intelligence and humanity, Even So is an ode to the transformative power of love in all its difficult forms. It's also a beautiful and devastating rumination on what happens when life gives us all we dreamed of and yet we still yearn for more.
Hassan Ghedi Santur, the author of The Youth of God, Maps of Exile, and Something Remains
A moving tale of sin, guilt, and redemption ... Uplifting, maybe even transcendent, I think some readers may be able to recognize themselves in these characters and find succour in how their stories turn out.
Literary Treats
This novel is an exploration of empathy and how to be loving and forgiving to someone even when the decisions they are making are frustrating, angering, and damaging to other people. I enjoyed Davis’ nuance as she described the choices and consequences of her complex characters.
Overlooking Eldridge
Davis is first and foremost a storyteller, primarily concerned with immersing her reader in an engaging drama. She is not interested in preaching or moralizing. Even So is another example of her consummate art.
The Miramichi Reader
This book is a meditation on unconditional love, and after reading the last page, it left me with a sense of unexpected calmness.
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