Praise for One Night Two Souls Went Walking
An NPR Favorite Book of 2020
A Newsweek Must-Read Book of Fall 2020
A Kirkus Best Fiction of 2020
A Bustle Best Book of Fall 2020
A Millions Most Anticipated Book of Fall 2020
“Shimmering, remarkable. . . . A triumph of a novel, and one that arrives at the perfect time.” —Michael Schaub, NPR
“Cooney’s warm and hopeful novel is a salve for these times.” —Juliana Rose Pignataro, Newsweek
“A wonderful and memorable novel that lingers long and deep in the mind of readers, making us reconsider our concepts of faith, kindness, and what exactly a soul is, anyway.” —Jim Carmin, The Star Tribune
“Wise and warm. . . . This is a quiet book, steady, gentle, present, one that grapples with the matter-of-fact here and now, and wades, with bravery and wonder, into the mysteries that make us human.” —Nina MacLaughlin, The Boston Globe
“The perfect novel to combat pandemic angst.” —Kirkus, starred review
“Cooney’s novel expands the concept of what’s possible, imagining hope where there is none and pointing always toward the light.” —Mari Carlson, BookPage starred review
“The word ‘soul’ is a frequent presence in this novel, a kind of familiar spirit.” —Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal
“A novel to sink into, one that’s not comforting so much as it makes us feel and think about being in the world, about things like solace, and heartbreak and souls.” —Deborah Dundas, The Toronto Star
“Now, more than ever, we need to be reminded that hope prevails—and this novel does exactly that.” —Carolyn Quimby, The Millions
“A cohesive, thought-provoking story that reveals rare moments of light and connection.” —Catherine Thureson, Foreword Reviews
“A poetic story of wandering souls, filled with the beauty of human encounters and the sorrows of departure.” —Dorthe Nors
“One Night Two Souls Went Walking has the familiarity of old fairy-tale books, the steadiness of Tove Jansson, the abstraction of Silvina Ocampo, and something entirely new. A lovely and grave novel.” —Kate Bernheimer
“Radiant, humane, splendidly joyous.” —Alyson Hagy
★ 2020-07-29
Cooney’s brief but compelling novel—in which an unnamed chaplain takes readers on her rounds during one night at a large Northeastern hospital—explores issues like mortality, spiritual survival, and human connection.
The 36-year-old Episcopal chaplain, frizzy-haired and pear-shaped, has what her boss calls a natural gift for telling people what they need to hear. Her instinctive ability to soothe becomes increasingly evident as she travels from one patient to another. She is spiritual but practical. While she asks “What is a soul?” in the novel’s first line—and returns to the question in different guises throughout—the narrator’s spiritual quest does not cause her moral qualms about lying when necessary, whether to soothe a doctor who fears she's sinned or give hope to a dying chef who expects his former restaurant patrons to visit en masse. Her favorite patients are an elderly, deeply lonely librarian and a 15-year-old boy who’s survived a catastrophic accident physically shattered but with his gentle magnetism intact. Less appealing characters, like a lawyer who is rude to the staff, also receive her understanding. Each has a story. Often the stories lead the chaplain to stories from her own past. A subtle plot takes shape almost between the lines concerning the chaplain’s unresolved relationship with Plummy, a neuroscientist 10 years her junior now living in Germany, who's fascinated by out-of-body experiences, what he calls oobs; confronted during her shift with two possible oobs, the chaplain is forced to reexamine the idea of soul yet again but also to reconsider her relationship with Plummy. Those oob walks of the title may stretch credibility, but Cooney does a remarkable job structuring a novel of vignettes and stories within stories into a cohesive whole. Equally remarkable is her portrait of the chaplain as a personification of the potential for human goodness. Though introspective, the narrator is never self-absorbed. Her voice, funny and direct, keeps sentimentality at bay.
The perfect novel to combat pandemic angst.
