Letter from Point Clear : A Novel

The older Owen siblings--Ellen and Morris--long ago left behind their gracious family home in Alabama in favor of the northeast. But when they learn that their wayward baby sister Bonnie has moved back into the old place with her new husband, a local evangelical preacher, they head home to perform a rescue. Upon their arrival, they find Bonnie reformed, and pregnant. But she hasn't yet broken the news to her husband that her brother Morris is gay, and the preacher soon begins a campaign to rescue him.

With tremendous insight and empathy, Dennis McFarland "turns a comic showdown between New England skeptics and Bible Belt fundamentalists into an eloquent mediation on the many meanings of faith" (The Washington Post).

“Addictively readable . . . [McFarland] is a master satirist, subtle and unerring in his portrait of contemporary life.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

“A beautiful work, one of those novels that is constantly aware of the surrounding natural world . . . Letter from Point Clear likely will draw the praise [McFarland's] five previous ones did, and deserves it.” —Chicago Sun Times

“An emotionally rich family drama propelled by vivid characters and lovely writing . . . This is not a novel for readers who like endings neatly resolved. Consider it more an unsolved emotional mystery: no crime, no gimmicks, but chock-full of lovely clues.” —USA Today

“Dennis McFarland's forte is family psyche, a dynamic masterfully exploited in Letter from Point Clear.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Dennis McFarland again displays his knack for eloquent subtlety. Letter from Point Clear takes on religion, family dysfunction and gay marriage, among other issues, but not in a didactic way.” —Los Angeles Times