The Monk Downstairs

Rebecca Martin is a single mother with a downstairs apartment to rent and a sense that she has used up her illusions. 'I had the romantic thing with my first husband, thank you very much,' she tells a hapless suitor. But when the new tenant turns out to be Michael Christopher, a monk who has just abandoned monastery life after 20 years and is smack bang in the middle of a a dark night of the soul, Rebecca begins to suspect that she is not as thoroughly disillusioned as she had thought.

Her daughter, Mary Martha, is delighted with the new arrival, as is Rebecca's mother, Phoebe. Even Rebecca's best friend, Bonnie, once a confirmed cynic in matters of the heart, urges Rebecca on. But none of them, Rebecca feels, understands how complicated and dangerous love actually is.

As her unlikely friendship with the ex-monk grows toward something deeper, and Michael wrestles with his despair while adjusting to a second career flipping hamburgers at McDonald's, Rebecca struggles with her own temptation to hope. But it is not until she is brought up short by the realities of life and death that she begins to glimpse the real mystery of love, and the unfathomable depths of faith.

Format: Softback - Great used condition

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2002

ISBN: 0732275938