A New Name

Grace Livingston Hill's A New Name opens in a storm of guilt, class tension, and heartbreak. Murray Van Rensselaer, a privileged young man used to control, is brought low in a hospital waiting room after a reckless car accident leaves Bessie Chapparelle gravely injured. As he waits through fear and humiliation, the cold efficiency of the nurse and the memory of Bessie's former warmth force him to face the cost of his careless life. When the news comes that Bessie has died, Murray's panic becomes a crisis of conscience that sends him fleeing into the night. The novel widens to reveal the emptiness beneath the Van Rensselaer family's polished wealth, where Charles endures a cold marriage and the burden of preserving appearances while longing for real domestic love. Elsewhere, a nurse struggles to identify a badly injured man who calls for Mary Banks in Marlborough, only to meet confusion, fear, and a denied connection when Rose Marie Banks is summoned. With its blend of social contrast, spiritual reckoning, mystery, and romance, the story traces the painful path from privilege and pride toward truth, remorse, and the possibility of redemption. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.