Knocking
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3.8 • 6 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Sometimes the breaking is the beginning.
Tonya has been fighting to keep her family intact, smoothing edges, swallowing hurt, doing her best to be the perfect pastor's wife. But the moment her husband's secret comes crashing into the open, everything detonates at once. She finds herself outside in the cold rain, breathless from the shock, while her teenage daughter disappears into the darkness rather than face the wreckage inside.
Emma's escape lands her in the last place Tonya would think to look: the cluttered, closed-off home of Fiona, the reclusive woman next door. Fiona didn't plan to take in a heartbroken teenager. She didn't plan to care. But Emma's arrival ruptures the isolated world she's built, forcing her to confront the wounds she's buried for years.
As Tonya spirals, Emma hides, and Fiona wrestles with the ghosts she's locked away, something unexpected begins to unfold one block over: a small band of senior women quietly forming a new church from the ashes of the one that failed them. They don't know what they're doing. But they can't ignore the desperation surrounding them.
And the fragile beginnings of that unlikely church are about to collide with Tonya, Emma, and Fiona in ways none of them could foresee.
Gritty, honest, and deeply human, Knocking is an intergenerational Christian novel that refuses to pretty up the brokenness—but dares to believe that God still works in the wreckage.
"Fans of Francine Rivers should take a look!" — Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Merrill (The Prima Donna) kicks off the New Beginnings series with a potent tale of betrayal, faith, and forgiveness. When long-suffering pastor's wife Tonya Mendell discovers her husband is having an affair with a congregant, it is the couple's preteen daughter, Emma, who feels the brunt of the trauma. After being humiliated by a best friend turned mean girl, Emma gets into a fight with her parents, storms out of the house, and is welcomed into the home of the neighborhood recluse, Fiona Patterson. While Emma's parents continue their marital charade in an attempt to keep Roy's pastoral position, Emma finds solace with Fiona and the Puddys, a "weirdo" homeschool family she is forced to spend time with but previously disregarded, who prove to be more reliable than Emma's own family. Meanwhile, in a separate story line, seven elderly women have been told their diocese is shuttering their church. In response, they start New Beginnings in a dilapidated old building. The services are unconventional, but they just might be what Tonya, Emma, Fiona, and the Puddy family need. Merrill's theological insight on God's grace amid difficult circumstances resonates and will have readers anticipating the next installment. Fans of Francine Rivers should take a look. (Self-published)
