We look forward to seeing you on your next visit to the library. Find a location near you.

The Dearly Beloved: A Novel
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)

Book Cover
Average Rating
5 star
 
(2)
4 star
 
(2)
3 star
 
(1)
2 star
 
(1)
1 star
 
(0)
Author:
Published:
S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books 2019
Status:
Available from OverDrive
Description
"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.
Also in This Series
Formats
Adobe EPUB eBook
Works on all eReaders (except Kindles), desktop computers and mobile devices with reading apps installed.
Kindle Book
Works on Kindles and devices with a Kindle app installed.
OverDrive Read
Need Help?
If you are having problem transferring a title to your device, please fill out this support form or visit the library so we can help you to use our eBooks and eAudio Books.
More Like This
Other Editions and Formats
More Copies In LINK+
Loading LINK+ Copies...
More Details
Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
08/13/2019
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781982104542
ASIN:
B07P5J6P57
Reviews from GoodReads
Loading GoodReads Reviews.
Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Cara Wall. (2019). The Dearly Beloved: A Novel. S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Cara Wall. 2019. The Dearly Beloved: A Novel. S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Cara Wall, The Dearly Beloved: A Novel. S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books, 2019.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Cara Wall. The Dearly Beloved: A Novel. S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books, 2019.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
Copy Details
LibraryOwnedAvailable
Shared Digital Collection11
Staff View
Grouped Work ID:
9933c72a-69df-a727-d0b0-53e2977816a1
Go To Grouped Work
Needs Update?:
No
Date Added:
Aug 08, 2019 12:33:22
Date Updated:
Oct 31, 2023 06:10:23
Last Metadata Check:
Mar 24, 2024 12:52:03
Last Metadata Change:
Nov 10, 2023 15:28:24
Last Availability Check:
Mar 24, 2024 12:52:08
Last Availability Change:
Feb 08, 2024 09:07:42
Last Grouped Work Modification Time:
Mar 29, 2024 02:17:20

OverDrive Product Record

images
    • cover:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0439-1/{70EB086C-905E-413D-9746-F7D26EFCC1BC}IMG100.JPG
        • type: image/jpeg
    • thumbnail:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0439-1/{70EB086C-905E-413D-9746-F7D26EFCC1BC}IMG200.JPG
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover150Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0439-1/{70EB086C-905E-413D-9746-F7D26EFCC1BC}IMG150.JPG
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover300Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0439-1/{70EB086C-905E-413D-9746-F7D26EFCC1BC}IMG400.JPG
        • type: image/jpeg
formats
      • identifiers:
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9781982104542
      • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
      • id: ebook-epub-adobe
      • identifiers:
            • type: ASIN
            • value: B07P5J6P57
      • name: Kindle Book
      • id: ebook-kindle
      • identifiers:
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9781982104542
      • name: OverDrive Read
      • id: ebook-overdrive
otherFormatIdentifiers
      • type: ISBN
      • value: 9781982104535
mediaType
eBook
primaryCreator
    • role: Author
    • name: Cara Wall
isOwnedByCollections
True
title
The Dearly Beloved
dateAdded
2019-08-08T23:38:00Z
contentDetails
      • href: https://link.overdrive.com?websiteID=141&titleID=4593075
      • type: text/html
      • account:
          • name: Sacramento Public Library (CA)
          • id: 1151
sortTitle
Dearly Beloved A Novel
crossRefId
4593075
subtitle
A Novel
id
70EB086C-905E-413D-9746-F7D26EFCC1BC
starRating
3.8

OverDrive MetaData

isPublicDomain
False
formats
      • fileName: TheDearlyBeloved_9781982104542_4593075
      • partCount: 0
      • fileSize: 5478822
      • identifiers:
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9781982104542
      • rights:
            • type: Copying
            • value: 0
            • type: Printing
            • value: 0
            • type: Lending
            • value: 0
            • type: ReadAloud
            • value: 0
            • type: ExpirationRights
            • value: 0
      • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
      • isReadAlong: False
      • id: ebook-epub-adobe
      • onSaleDate: 8/13/2019
      • samples:
            • source: From the book
            • formatType: ebook-overdrive
            • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=70eb086c-905e-413d-9746-f7d26efcc1bc&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
      • fileName: TheDearlyBeloved_4593075
      • partCount: 0
      • fileSize: 0
      • identifiers:
            • type: ASIN
            • value: B07P5J6P57
      • name: Kindle Book
      • isReadAlong: False
      • id: ebook-kindle
      • onSaleDate: 8/13/2019
      • samples:
            • source: From the book
            • formatType: ebook-overdrive
            • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=70eb086c-905e-413d-9746-f7d26efcc1bc&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
      • fileName: TheDearlyBeloved_9781982104542_4593075
      • partCount: 0
      • fileSize: 0
      • identifiers:
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9781982104542
      • name: OverDrive Read
      • isReadAlong: False
      • id: ebook-overdrive
      • onSaleDate: 8/13/2019
      • samples:
            • source: From the book
            • formatType: ebook-overdrive
            • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=70eb086c-905e-413d-9746-f7d26efcc1bc&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
keywords
      • value: greenwich village
      • value: Faith
      • value: pastor
      • value: parenting
      • value: Autistic
      • value: Religion
      • value: agnostic
      • value: autism
      • value: NYC
      • value: Presbyterian
      • value: debut novel
      • value: new york city
      • value: Christianity
      • value: autism spectrum
      • value: Elizabeth Gilbert
      • value: mothers day gift
      • value: gilead
      • value: book club pick
      • value: gifts for women
      • value: autism novel
      • value: ann patchett
      • value: autistic kids
      • value: autism symptoms
      • value: Marilynne Robinson
      • value: best summer novel
      • value: religious novel
      • value: literary audiobooks
      • value: jenna bush hager
      • value: Matthew Thomas
      • value: maile meloy
      • value: audiofile earphones award
      • value: award-winning audiobooks
      • value: courtney sullivan
      • value: 1960s New York
      • value: #readwithjenna
      • value: autism child
      • value: fourth presbyterian church
      • value: iowa writer's workshop
      • value: parishoner
      • value: presbyterian answers
      • value: presbyterian hymnal
      • value: summer 2019 debut novel
creators
      • role: Author
      • fileAs: Wall, Cara
      • bioText: Cara Wall is a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop and Stanford University. While at Iowa, Cara taught fiction writing in the undergraduate creative writing department as well as at the Iowa Young Writer's Studio in her capacity of founder and inaugural director. She went on to teach middle school English and History, and has been published by Glamour, Salon, and The San Francisco Chronicle. She lives in New York City with her family.
      • name: Cara Wall
publishDate
2019-08-13T00:00:00-04:00
isOwnedByCollections
True
title
The Dearly Beloved
fullDescription
"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.
reviews
      • premium: True
      • source: Kirkus
      • content:

        June 1, 2019
        Molded by their backgrounds and childhood experiences, the individual members of two couples adopt beliefs which will define them--until they are confronted by a heart-wrenching challenge. Writing with restrained lyricism, Wall's debut--15 years in the making--offers a kind of literary chamber music, combining the viewpoints of a quartet of characters across multiple decades and events. Charles, the son of a Harvard professor, is a man reliant on research and insight. James, whose drunken father was broken by war, will grow up to be full of impatience and the urge to action. Nan, the daughter of a Southern minister, has learned patience and generosity while Lily, orphaned at 15, is happiest when withdrawn. Charles' unswerving love for Lily is matched by James' determination to marry Nan even though neither couple seems a natural fit. When both men opt for a life in the church, Nan is better equipped for the role of clergyman's wife than independent, brittle Lily, who feels no obligation to conform. The four eventually connect when Charles and James are offered the joint ministry of Third Presbyterian Church in Greenwich Village. Old-fashioned in tone and subject matter, the story is set in the mid-20th century and evokes some of the stifling social norms of the era. Wall has a very precise sensibility, and there is no escaping the sense of tidy predetermination in the clear, fixed positions of her four figures and their various oppositions, seen through the debates, struggles, rejections, and consolations that arise among them. Finely drawn and paced and written with intense compassion, the novel shifts ground with a late development that will test and push forward each of the four, leading to a conclusion consistent with Wall's grace and control. A moving, eloquent exploration of faith and its response to the refining fire of life's challenges.

        COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        July 15, 2019
        Wall’s sensitive, deliberate debut examines the intersecting lives of two couples through years in which they alternately clash and support each other. In the politically volatile 1960s, reserved upper-class Charles and streetwise Chicagoan James are selected to be co-pastors at a Presbyterian church in New York. Like it or not, their wives are thrown together as well. While the two men complement each other, their wives often clash. Charles’s wife, Lily—a feminist, atheist academic who was orphaned as a teenager—shuns both the church and the company of James’s wife, Nan, a sociable Mississippian who was raised as the daughter of a minister and with a strong faith of her own. Rather than simply throwing all these strong personalities together, Wall slowly and carefully builds the history and point of view of each individual and then each new couple. By creating such well-defined characters, she is able to all the more effectively explore the role of faith, or its lack, in dealing with the pressures of marriage, child-rearing, and work, as one couple faces the fact that they may not have the children they want and the other deals with a child with special needs. This is a story in which religion is central to the plot and the actions of the characters, but in which the author stands back from taking sides in the battle. It’s a rare and intellectually stimulating outing.

      • premium: True
      • source: Library Journal
      • content:

        Starred review from August 1, 2019

        DEBUT In her literary first novel, author Wall explores the twin issues of faith and cultural change through the copastors of a New York church and their wives in 1963. Charles is an intellectual who finds that God answers the questions that he didn't know he had. His love of God is profound and devout; his wife, Lily, however, is an atheist who gives no quarter to thoughts of the divine. Charles loves her, though, and she has willingly married him, though she is uncomfortable with the role of "pastor's wife." James, the other copastor, is a skeptic who isn't sure of God, but he does understand that religion is one of the ways that people can change the world, and in the 1960s, he knows the world has to change. James's wife, Nan, grew up the daughter of a Southern pastor. Her faith is sure, but she isn't all that sure the world does need to change. VERDICT This story will be beloved by book clubs and fans of literary fiction. The characters are finely drawn and written with compassion and care, and every word is precisely chosen.--Jennifer Mills, Shorewood-Troy Lib., IL

        Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

      • premium: True
      • source: Booklist
      • content:

        July 1, 2019
        Wall's generation-spanning debut novel of faith and fellowship begins with two 1950s love-at-first-sight story lines. Charles is instantly smitten by Lily when she answers his simple question, firmly and directly, in a Harvard library. Meanwhile, at the University of Chicago, James attends a weekend recital and decides he must meet the unassumingly beautiful piano accompanist, Nan. Within each pair, there is at first a believer and a nonbeliever, a dynamic that shifts in shades before and after the four become linked for life, when Charles and James are hired in 1963 to lead a Presbyterian church in Greenwich Village. Socially gifted Charles and activist-minded James complement each other as one well-balanced, co-ministering force, while their wives' differences more often keep the women apart. The surprises children bring, or don't, will challenge them all. Underlying the very readable, honestly human propulsion of her characters' lives in their near-entirety, Wall does a tricky thing quite well, exploring the facts of faith and love at both their most exalting and most trying. This has broad appeal for book groups.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

popularity
1548
links
    • self:
        • href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/v1L1BWwAAAA2I/products/70eb086c-905e-413d-9746-f7d26efcc1bc/metadata
        • type: application/vnd.overdrive.api+json
id
70eb086c-905e-413d-9746-f7d26efcc1bc
starRating
3.8
images
    • cover:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0439-1/{70EB086C-905E-413D-9746-F7D26EFCC1BC}IMG100.JPG
        • type: image/jpeg
    • thumbnail:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0439-1/{70EB086C-905E-413D-9746-F7D26EFCC1BC}IMG200.JPG
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover150Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0439-1/{70EB086C-905E-413D-9746-F7D26EFCC1BC}IMG150.JPG
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover300Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0439-1/{70EB086C-905E-413D-9746-F7D26EFCC1BC}IMG400.JPG
        • type: image/jpeg
isPublicPerformanceAllowed
False
languages
      • code: en
      • name: English
subjects
      • value: Fiction
      • value: Literature
publishDateText
08/13/2019
otherFormatIdentifiers
      • type: ISBN
      • value: 9781982104535
mediaType
eBook
shortDescription
"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...
sortTitle
Dearly Beloved A Novel
crossRefId
4593075
subtitle
A Novel
publisher
S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books
bisacCodes
      • code: FIC008000
      • description: Fiction / Sagas
      • code: FIC019000
      • description: Fiction / Literary
      • code: FIC044000
      • description: Fiction / Contemporary Women