Home for Christmas: A Novel

by Andrew M. Greeley

Overview

Petey Pat Kane and Mariana Pia Pelligrino have been in love with each other their whole lives. But on a night that is supposed to be one of the best of their lives, Peter makes a choice that forces him to leave Chicago—and Mariana—behind. Guilt leads him into the Army, where he becomes Captain Kane, war hero. But nothing can make him forget his love for Mariana.

On his third deployment in Iraq, Peter is injured and finds himself both alive and dead on a wondrous spiritual journey where he is given a second chance at life from God Himself. With Christmas approaching, time is running out for Peter to complete the most important mission of his life: convincing himself that he and Mariana were meant to share a special message of love with the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780765322517
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/09/2010
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	7.44(w) x 11.80(h) x 0.51(d)

About the Author

Priest, sociologist, author, and journalist, Father Andrew M. Greeley (1928-2013) was the author of over 50 bestselling novels and more than 100 works of nonfiction. His novels include the Bishop Blackie Ryan series, including The Archbishop in Andalusia; the Nuala Anne McGrail series, including Irish Tweed; the O’Malley Family Saga, including A Midwinter’s Tale; and standalones such as Home for Christmas and The Cardinal Sins.

A leading spokesperson for generations of Catholics, Father Greeley unflinchingly urged his beloved Church to become more responsive to believers’ evolving concerns. He chronicled his service to the Church in two autobiographies, Confessions of a Parish Priest and Furthermore!

Editorial Reviews

This book should be in every bedside table and in every soldier's pack—a transcendent tale to rank with A Christmas Carol.” —David Hagberg, New York Times bestselling author

“Few writers have what it takes to make God a character in fiction, but Andrew Greeley pulls it off with charm and élan in this delightful love story.” —Stephen Coonts, New York Times bestselling author

“Warm-hearted, but clear-sighted about the human condition, Home for Christmas is a lovely book. These are characters you will carry with you.” —Barbara D'Amato

From the Publisher

Only one book a year can claim to be the schlockiest, most saccharine Christmas book, and this is it. Petey Pat Kane and Mariana Pelligrino have loved each other since the first grade, but a tragic prom night accident sends Kane running. He ends up a grunt in Iraq, where he’s killed—briefly—by a suicide bomber. While dead, he goes on a spiritual journey, meets God and learns that he is destined to be Mariana’s “lover and protector.” Back among the living, stubborn Petey’s reminded by his local priest what’s really important in life. The simplistic notions of the afterlife, spirituality and love are like something borrowed from a third-grade writing project. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Father Greeley offers his second Christmas tale (after 2004's Star Bright!). Pete and Mariana have been in love since grade school, but when Pete runs away, eventually joining the army, he abandons his small-town life and becomes a hero. During his third deployment in Iraq, he is injured in a bomb attack and finds himself in limbo, surrounded by angels who convince him to head back to finish his life and make it up to his sweetheart. For Greeley fans and holiday fiction collections.

Library Journal

Father Greeley's blarney-soaked latest (Irish Tweed, 2009, etc.) teaches that heaven can wait. An undersized, self-acknowledged geek as a schoolboy on the outskirts of Chicago, Peter Patrick Kane grows up to be extraordinary, to be a hero, to eventually pin the Congressional Medal of Honor on his no-longer-scrawny chest. Changed as he is, Petey Pat's love for Mariana Pia Pellegrino, ignited in the second grade, seems immutable. There are, however, obstacles, and parental objections on both sides force the lovers into divergent trajectories. Beautiful, brainy Mariana Pia becomes a high-powered lawyer, Petey Pat a courageous soldier, much admired and respected by his comrades in arms. On his third deployment in Iraq, a roadside bomb explodes and Captain Petey Pat, gallant to the end, dies with Mariana Pia's name on his lips. Or does he? Certainly the docs on the spot are convinced. Not so, the "deceased" will eventually argue. For nine-and-a-half minutes he'd simply gone a kind of AWOL, he insists, describing an extraterrestrial journey during which he dropped in on "The City" for an interesting encounter with the One-or the One in Three, or the Boss, or God, if you will; He goes by all those names in the angelic community. Their chat (stage-Irish turns out to be heaven's lingua franca) proves amiable, despite the fact that angles are clearly being worked. Playing Cupid for reasons best known to Himself, God attempts to imbue Petey Pat with a sense of mission concerning Mariana Pia. Slight though it be, thereby hangs the tale. Furnishing the recently dead young soldier with his marching orders, the One says, providentially, "See you later, Petey Pat."Readers who wince at the very thought ofPetey Pat as a grown man's name should probably look elsewhere.

Kirkus Reviews