Description
“Forgiveness Is the Heart’s Big Project is a flawless novella of sly humor and profound wisdom. Kinerk has extraordinary skill in drawing vivid characters with few words and an unflinching eye for the agonies and absurdities of life. Landing in Boon, Alaska, our unsuspecting hero, Andy, rides the roller coaster of a life of hard knocks, meeting an array of unforgettable characters along the way. For the reader each encounter is a little bon bon to be savored, and the ending leaves us entirely satisfied.” —Anne Emerson, author of The Missy Box and Letters from Erastus: Field Notes on Grace
“Bob Kinerk—in an intelligent and vivid portrayal of what it means to be human—considers the choices we make, our inevitable mistakes, and the possibility for peace and joy through forgiveness. A beautiful and poignant story.” — Meg Serino, author of Annapurna
“It’s the 1960’s in Boon, Alaska, and when the hero of our book says ‘I can look back now and wish I had been wiser,’ we know something’s up. But I wasn’t prepared for the adventures that befall Andy and the array of people he befriends. Bob Kinerk manages to make even the minor characters unforgettable, and their journeys toward forgiveness round-about, comical, dismaying, and, finally, heartbreakingly real.” —Wendy Mnookin, author of Dinner with Emerson, winner of a ‘Must Read’ award from the Massachusetts Center for the Book
“Forgiveness Is the Heart’s Big Project by Robert Kinerk evokes the trials of Job. One unexpected and unearned heartbreak and disappointment follows another as one person after another exploits Andy. He is asked by a woman who has betrayed him, “What do you think I did wrong?” That question hovers. Kinerk’s empathy-packed novella explores the role and nature of forgiveness. It is tonic for our time.” —Joseph L. Kociubes, Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement
“The themes of flight, hardships, quest, loss, and discovery take on moving particularity in a down-to-earth hero’s journey across the entire country, from South Carolina to an Alaskan town named Boon. A place that, in Kinerk’s faithful telling, lives up to all the meanings of its name. The story is laced with both humor and poignant struggles as it traces a young man’s journey toward purpose, humanity, and home. Kinerk’s prose-style performs some literary magic: it is at once lean, distilled, and evocative, so the sparkling, memorable details dance on a calm surface, and the enduring wisdom of this story emerges in conversational voices and tones.” —Emily Hiestand, author of Watershed & Other Travels
