' This year's best book about family' Ron Charles The Washington Post A sweeping unforgettable novel from The New York Times best-selling author of Maine about the hope sacrifice & love between two sisters & the secret that drives them apart Nora & Theresa Flynn are twenty-one & seventeen when they leave their small village in Ireland & journey to America Nora is the responsible sister; she's shy & serious & engaged to a man she isn't sure that she loves Theresa is gregarious; she is thrilled by their new life in Boston & besotted with the fashionable dresses & dance halls on Dudley Street But when Theresa ends up pregnant Nora is forced to come up with a plan
- a decision with repercussions they are both far too young to understand Fifty years later Nora is the matriarch of a big Catholic family with four grown children John a successful if opportunistic political consultant; Bridget privately preparing to have a baby with her girlfriend; Brian at loose ends after a failed baseball career; & Patrick Nora's favorite the beautiful boy who gives her no end of heartache Estranged from her sister & cut off from the world Theresa is a cloistered nun living in an abbey in rural Vermont Until after decades of silence a sudden death forces Nora & Theresa to confront the choices they made so long ago A graceful supremely moving novel Saints for All Occasions explores the fascinating funny & sometimes achingly sad ways a secret at the heart of one family both breaks them & binds them together