Miracleville
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Sixteen-year-old Ani lives in the tiny Quebec town of Ste-Anne-de-Beaupre, where her family runs Saintly Souvenirs, a tourist shop catering to the many pilgrims who come to the town seeking a miracle.
The bane of Ani's existence is her hyperactive, over-sexed younger sister, Colette. Ani and her mother, Therese, are devout Catholics; Colette and her father are not. When Therese is paralyzed after a freak accident, Aniís faith is tested, but when she is confronted with something shocking in her mother's past, she has to rethink her whole existence.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Thought-provoking theological, ethical, and social questions confront 16-year-old narrator Ani and her family as personal tragedy and the exposure of long-held family secrets exacerbate the everyday challenges of a family-run business, ADHD, and awakening adolescent sexuality. Named for Saint Anne, one of Quebec s patron saints, Ani strives to live up to her namesake, but struggles with un-saintly feelings of irritation and envy toward her exuberant, impulsive, and sensual younger sister, Colette. An eclectic assortment of neighbors a reclusive, wheelchair-bound amputee; an herbalist raising a playboy teenage grandson; and a newly arrived, handsome priest who turns out to be a special friend of Ani s mother provide mystery and intrigue. They also play significant roles in Ani s life, awakening her self-awareness and her understanding of spiritual struggles faced by previous generations. In this sensitive examination of the complexities of faith, Polak (The Middle of Everywhere) captures the perplexing nuances of a town whose economy depends on and caters to pilgrim tourists, which affects the beliefs of local inhabitants, creating both skeptics and devout believers. Ages 12 up.
