Showing results by narrator "Sarah Hinlicky-Wilson" in All Categories

Once upon a time, an American girl moved to a little town in Slovakia, and she fell in love with the country, and with a boy. And then another boy. And then about a dozen boys fell in love with her. Many linguistic and romantic antics ensued, and a happy ending unlike any she could have foreseen.

Upstate New York, 1988. Pastor Donald Abney is plagued by uncertainty. Grandson of a fiery revivalist preacher, the gentle peacemaker wrestles with the contrast between their respective ministries. But when his household is rocked by a devastating accident, his misgivings become a painful certainty lacking any consolation. Carmichael Abney wonders if she’s settled too soon. Haunted by alternate versions of herself, the devoted pastor’s wife and academic is furious when her parents reveal their Jewish heritage to her preteen daughter without her permission.

A man arrives at the gates of heaven holding a faith that’s not his own; another clutches a suitcase he’s unwilling to give up. One woman demands to be sent back, while another asks for a new name. Hands empty or full, hearts joyful or disappointed, or appalled, these people and others approach the 12 open gates of heaven, only to discover the truth about their loves.

Big Rosa rescues unhappy women of the Wild West to work in a helium mine, and Georgie Appleseed rescues his failing diner with the help of neon. A silicon son tries to make his gold dad proud, while a scientist tries to make a new St. Francis from calcium bone fragments. Obadiah Toad gives away all his peace with a nickel, but Mama finally gives away her heart on account of arsenic. These 20 stories explore the elemental forces that underpin all of life.