"A gripping drama of ordinary human beings caught in a web of ethical confusions and moral complexities. It presents to us the razor's edge of conscience in an age dominated by relativism: What can people of good will do when faced with layers of evil in contemporary society, evils that present themselves as rational, legal, even 'moral'? How do they save life and bring hope to the hopeless- to do no harm, according to the Hippocratic oath? This novel is a biopsy of the sickness of late Western society, and more importantly a sign that we are not abandoned in the midst of it, and that good can triumph against all odds." - Michael D. O'Brien , author, Father Elijah p>"A soulful, beautifully written, and haunting novel." - Ron Hansen , New York Times best-selling author, Mariette in Ecstasy p>"Catholic writer De Maria deserves a wide audience." - Publishers Weekly "A meditation on guilt, innocence, and transcendence that will haunt the reader long after the book is done." - Mary Eberstadt , author, The Loser Letters: A Comic Tale of Life, Death, and Atheism p>"This is serious fiction with prose that is clean, strong, and worthy." - Thomas Howard , author, Narnia and Beyond p>"It's not often that a historical novel comes along that is at once period-appropriate, psychologically plausible - and very, very difficult to put down.

" - The Weekly Standard.