Wednesday, February 26, 2020

What is Alena Dillon reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Alena Dillon, author of Mercy House: A Novel.

Her entry begins:
I’m currently reading nonfiction essay collections on early motherhood. My son just celebrated his first birthday. I’ve found motherhood to be rewarding and challenging and confusing and joyous and overwhelming. When my emotions are this complex, I turn to the page, both by writing and reading. I’m consuming the world of motherhood so that I can...[read on]

About Mercy House, from the publisher:
She would stop at nothing to protect the women under her care.

Inside a century-old row house in Brooklyn, renegade Sister Evelyn and her fellow nuns preside over a safe haven for the abused and abandoned. Gruff and indomitable on the surface, warm and wry underneath, little daunts Evelyn, until she receives word that Mercy House will be investigated by Bishop Hawkins, a man with whom she shares a dark history. In order to protect everything they’ve built, the nuns must conceal many of their methods, which are forbidden by the Catholic Church.

Evelyn will go to great lengths to defend all that she loves. She confronts a gang member, defies the church, challenges her own beliefs, and faces her past. She is bolstered by the other nuns and the vibrant, diverse residents of the shelter—Lucia, Mei-Li, Desiree, Esther, and Katrina—whose differences are outweighed by what unites them: they’ve all been broken by men but are determined to rebuild.

Amidst her fight, Evelyn discovers the extraordinary power of mercy and the grace it grants, not just to those who receive it, but to those strong enough to bestow it.
Visit Alena Dillon's website.

The Page 69 Test: Mercy House.

My Book, The Movie: Mercy House.

Writers Read: Alena Dillon.

--Marshal Zeringue