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A Live Coal in the Sea
A Live Coal in the Sea
Author: Madeleine L'Engle
Madeleine L'Engle's first adult novel in four years -- now in paperback! With 23,000 copies sold since May 1996, this "haunting domestic drama" (Publishers Weekly) examines the powers of faith and mercy in one family's confrontation with a legacy of evil.Best known for A Wrinkle in Time -- the children's classic that has sold more ...  more »
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ISBN-13: 9780374189891
ISBN-10: 0374189897
Publication Date: 5/1996
Pages: 323
Rating:
  • Currently 4.3/5 Stars.
 5

4.3 stars, based on 5 ratings
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux (T)
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed A Live Coal in the Sea on + 124 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This book is about a family drama centered around astronomy professor Camilla Dickinson. In smoothly blended present and flashback story lines, we learn all about the skeletons in the family closet. When 18-year-old granddaughter Raffi asks Camilla why her father?Camilla's son Taxi, a soap opera star?claims she's not really her grandmother, the complicated true story starts to spill out. Camilla's young, pretty mother, Rose, cheated on her husband. Camilla's husband, Macarios Wanthakos, an Episcopal priest and son of a bishop, had his own dark family stories.
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reviewed A Live Coal in the Sea on + 30 more book reviews
A wonderful story about family, forgiveness, and how childhood damage can span a lifetime.
One of the things I enjoy about Madeleine L'Engle's books is her habit of reusing characters. It makes them seem even more like real people, to run into the same character in another book at another point in their life. Her interconnected webs of characters are like real life.
I also enjoy how she can write about religion intelligently without being preachy or moralistic. Her characters (and by extension, her) come across as intelligent and thoughtful.
reviewed A Live Coal in the Sea on + 94 more book reviews
One of my favorite authors (wrote the Wrinkle in Time for children). Her adult novels also please and always leave you thinking.


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