Less alcoholic gratitude to Fr. Bill Sheehan for ongoing lessons in centering prayer and “hanging out with God;” and to April Swofford and the sacred crew at the Monte Maria Monastery in Richmond, Virginia, for making and sustaining such a precious place of prayer. I’ll do your dishes anytime, April.
Fir Emmanuel’s early reading of the story was most heartening, as was Lynn Mason’s. Laurie Horowitz, the funniest woman in the world, is as always a mainstay. Kathleen Barratt taught me how to breathe during the course of this book; and Angela Phillips schooled me in the mysteries of yogic surrender. Mirabai Starr’s radically contemporary grappling with the spirituality of John of the Cross has been an inspiration, and her fresh version of The Dark Night of the Soul is a treasure. Thanks too to Laurie Chittenden for heroic efforts in a lost cause, and for the heads-up on the Gloucester Daffodil Festival. And I am ever grateful to Kate “Just a Novelist” Johnson for her ideal readership and for quoting me to good effect.
As ever, heartfelt thanks to the lovely Linda Chester, of Linda Chester and Associates, for elegance, grit, and unwavering support. I owe an unpayable, ever-accumulating debt of gratitude to Laurie Fox, my agent, editor, beloved friend, fellow novelist, and brave companion of the literary road: for joy, wisdom, laughter, and good meals out, and for all the gifts of her extraordinary spirit. And to Claire, my graceful partner through fiasco and fandango and the patient sufferer of all my missteps, the whole of my awed and grateful love.
Praise for The Monk Downstairs
“This gentle, luminous love story shimmers with warmth, honesty, and self-deprecating humor. The finale does not disappoint, as these two intelligent and engaging characters ultimately succeed in their quests for love.”
—Booklist
“In Rebecca, Farrington has created one of the more palpable female leads in contemporary fiction, witty and wise but still vulnerable…. And in The Monk Downstairs Farrington has written a relationship novel that is so sensitive and accurate it just may steal your heart.”
—Body & Soul magazine
“…funny, touching…Laced with elements of spiritualism but never veering far from reality, this intelligent story immerses readers in the action and endears us to the two likeable main characters.”
—Book Page
“The Monk Downstairs is a quiet bit of wisdom, an exploration of emotional and philosophical space that doesn’t even exist for us unless we agree to accept, once again, that certain underlying questions are answered.”
—Books & Culture
“In The Monk Downstairs, Tim Farrington creates a world one is not only happy to read about, but to dwell in, to savor, to learn from and laugh in. Open it up and prepare to be delighted.”
—Lorna Landvik, author of
Patty Jane’s House of Curl and
Welcome to the Great Mysterious
“Farrington writes startlingly well; there are sentences to marvel at on every page.”
—Book Street USA
“keep[s] you turning the pages until the end.”
—San Francsico Chronicle
“…gracefully funny, heartwarming novel.”
—Seattle Times
“…funny, appealing romance…breezes pleasantly along to a satisfying conclusion.”
—Boston Herald
ALSO BY TIM FARRINGTON
The California Book of the Dead
Blues for Hannah
Lizzie’s War
Copyright
THE MONK DOWNSTAIRS. Copyright © 2002 by Tim Farrington. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST HARPERCOLLINS PAPERBACK EDITION PUBLISHED IN 2003
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
EPub Edition © April 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-201675-1
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