The Baby Tree

I can't remember the last book I read that was so funny and so touching. McGraw treats her subject matter-- infertility, fidelity, faith-- with a light touch that keeps her pastor heroine from being too . . . well, preachy. From the first witty, lively sentence to the last, The Baby Tree is a wonderful book.

THE BABY TREE is a revelation, humorous and humane, tender and wrenching. I read Erin Mc Graw's new novel with absolute delight, immersing myself in the dizzying pleasure of being with her troubled, quirky, endearing people. There's a Methodist minister who is seduced by (or who seduces!) her first husband, a doctor who lays hands on his patients when he knows they are beyond the help of medicine or surgery, and a hard-to-handle pregnant teenager who offers them both a miraculous path to redemption. Ms. McGraw spins and weaves, pulling her difficult people into an ever tighter web where they cannot escape themselves, and they cannot escape one another. Curses become blessings. The struggle itself is holy. Ms. McGraw reveals that we come to grace not by following laws or codes or morals, but by discovering our own courage and compassion. We live with true mercy only if we are brave enough to keep our eyes, ears, hearts, and minds open through each changing moment. Erin Mcgraw takes on one of the most pressing social and political debates of our time, the question of a woman's right to an abortion. She finds no simple answers, but she offers us turmoil and transcendence, people whose lives matter because they are as perplexed and as full of desire as we are.

This is the best novel I've read in ages. Erin McGraw delves into the most vulnerable chambers of the human heart with her realistic small-town characters, gracefully exploring issues of love, fidelity, forgiveness and redemption with pitch-perfect language and the kind of pacing that keeps you turning the pages. I literally couldn't put the novel down. Not only does McGraw describe her characters so well that you feel you've known them for years, her ability to find their tenderest hopes and inner bruises leaves you breathless. When you've finished reading, you realize that you've come to know your own soul better along with McGraw's characters. This is the kind of novel that enriches your life long after you've read it, and you can't help dog-earing the pages for your favorite passages to return to. My only complaint is that I wished it was twenty pages longer, but perhaps that's because I didn't want it to end! All in all, The Baby Tree is a wise, witty, and soul-expanding novel that deserves a well-earned place on your shelf of favorite books.