Dear James (Loyola Classics)

“Characters so exquisitely rendered that even a first-time visitor to Staggerford will come to love them as old friends.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A deliciously rich, simmering brew of envy, charity, and redemptive love.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Old-fashioned storytelling at its best.”

—Kirkus Reviews

Personal and public crises descend on Agatha McGee in her seventieth year. The feisty, quick-witted, fiercely Catholic spinster travels to Italy and Ireland to shake off the malaise of a forced retirement. There, against the backdrop of IRA and Islamic terrorism, she confronts the love of her life, a priest who has betrayed her by concealing his clerical identity. Back home in Staggerford, Minnesota, two spiteful acquaintances smear Agatha’s good name with malicious stories. With the sure touch of a narrative master, Jon Hassler blends gentle satire and acute insight in a compelling story of loss, forgiveness, and renewal.