First published 2019
Brian Doyle died at sixty from brain cancer, leaving behind dozens of books and a devoted readership who treasured his spiritual writing. This collection gathers his essays about finding the sacred in ordinary moments. Doyle writes about the religion of everyday things rather than formal Catholic doctrine. He discovers holiness in small details: a child's wonder at hearing water flow, the whiskers a widow no longer finds in her bathroom sink, even the majesty of a nine-foot sturgeon. His subjects range across all forms of love, from romantic to spiritual to natural. David James Duncan introduces these pieces, explaining how Doyle brought playful and soaring language to stories about unremarkable people and places. The essays serve as comfort for weary readers in dark times. Doyle transforms the quotidian into something extraordinary through his sense of wonder. Nothing remains ordinary under his gaze. The collection invites readers to discover joy and awe in the smallest moments of their own lives.
Genres: essays, literary-fiction, non-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century, inspirational
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, intimate
Period: 21st-Century
288 pages · Kindle Edition · Little, Brown and Company