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Summary | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Reviews | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
The story of a mother's love for her son, set against a struggle with faith, big-time grief, and what it means to be human.
Psychologist Dinah Rosenberg Galligan, securely married to her college sweetheart, Sam, is hurled into a waking nightmare when their youngest child, Elijah, falls into a life-threatening coma.
Amid the technological marvels of a major medical center Dinah meets the mysterious Seth Lucien. A vain, sexy spirit with a surprising connection to Dinah's troubled past, and a master seducer's awareness of her secret fears and regrets, Seth haunts the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit where Elijah dreamlessly sleeps. Claiming to know the future, he tempts Dinah with a simple deal: her son's life for the use of her body. What parent wouldn't willingly accept the trade?
Fran Dorf, a spellbinding writer of psychological suspense, pilots this Faustian tale with total assurance. Laced with unexpected humor and passion, Saving Elijahis at its core the story of a mother's love for her son, set against a struggle with faith, big-time grief, and what it means to be human.
Prologue
When the woman phoned, I couldn't place her name until she said she was Maggie's mother. Then I knew.
They'd made quite a pair at the hospital, my son and her daughter. Eight-year-old Maggie was stricken and hairless and exhausted, her ashen face steroid-bloated beyond all reason. Five-year-old Elijah, with his thick glasses and crossed eyes, looked like a weird little Martian, his red-blond curls pasted to his skull with goop, an electrode and wire bonnet attaching him to a rolling EEG machine. He giggled when he saw himself in the mirror.
"Yes, I remember now."
I stood in my darkened bedroom, the phone hot against my ear. I could hear my children's laughter like the pealing of chimes through the house. Kate, fifteen, and Alex, fourteen, were amusing Elijah with a game of tag.
"Maggie's well again," the woman whispered.
Why was she calling me? She wasn't my friend; I'd only met her that once.
"Did you hear me, Mrs. Galligan?" she said. "Maggie's ...
Susan Isaacs, author of Shining Through
A moving tale of a mother haunted by the grave illness of her son and by a demon from her past. But it is more a rich and compelling story of faith, grief, guilt, ghosts, God, and ultimately, hope.
If you liked Saving Elijah, try these:
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'An act of consummate literary bravery, a writer known for her clarity allowing us to watch her mind as it becomes clouded with grief.'
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With wry candor and tender humor, Ayelet Waldman has crafted a strikingly beautiful novel for our time, tackling the absurdities of modern life and reminding us why we love some people no matter what.
Pony Confidential
by Christina Lynch
In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.
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A few books well chosen, and well made use of, will be more profitable than a great confused Alexandrian library.
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