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Shame and guilt play a huge role in the characters� decisions, whether it’s hiding the evidence, ignoring it, or trying to make it right. Which characters are handling these feelings the way you would? Which characters� actions are making it worse?

Tessa's the only one who is able to resist inappropriate guilt and swiftly ask forgiveness for wrongdoing. Interesting, since she doesn't have the advantage of a Christian background.

Jill wrote: "Tessa's the only one who is able to resist inappropriate guilt and swiftly ask forgiveness for wrongdoing. Interesting, since she doesn't have the advantage of a Christian background."

That part was strange to me, that there is no growth in faith with the main protagonist(s). If I were in the mode of having conversations with an angel and he would pop in and out of my daily life, that makes you think on a whole new level about God and Creation. Such an experience is not normal and life-changing and Tessa doesn't think or contemplate the ramifications at all other than accepting that angels are real.

Kerstin wrote: "That part was strange to me, that there is no growth in faith with the main protagonist(s).."

I had the same thought, Kerstin. They interact deeply with an angel, yet there's no spiritual development.

John wrote: "Kerstin wrote: "That part was strange to me, that there is no growth in faith with the main protagonist(s).."

I had the same thought, Kerstin. They interact deeply with an angel, yet there's no spiritual development."

I disagree with this. I think there is spiritual development. In chapter 24, Tessa speaks directly with God for the first time in her life. Doesn't this count as spiritual development?

Also, spiritual development is usually quite slow. Even Saint Paul retired for three years to Arabia to meditate before getting on to his new life as an apostle (see Gal. 1-17).

I think the way guilt and shame can be handled make the main plot of the novel. Tessa is specially apt to handle those feelings, in herself and in others, due to her special call in life. Amanda and her husband, plus Martin, are the three characters most prone to react with those feelings. So perhaps we should say that the real protagonist of the novel is Martin, rather than Tessa, as his spiritual growth is more evident.

This is not the first time Jane has dealt with those feelings in angels. In The Wrong Enemy, published six years before this book, the same situation applies even more strongly to another angel. In fact, I'd say this book is a new version of that one, with a larger part assigned to humans. There is also some of the same idea in her short story Even A Stone, also implying an angel (and several dragons).

It is obvious that Jane Lebak is using this plot to display correct and bad answers to shame and guilt in humans, not in angels. In spite of their personal relation, I doubt she has ever felt her guardian angel passing through similar situations.

So my answer to this debate about the characters of the novel showing spiritual growth, is positive: the character who needs to grow more, actually grows satisfactorily. And this is Martin, not Tessa.

On "spiritual development," Tessa praying certainly is a "development," I just didn't see anything leading up to it; it seemed to come out of nowhere. How did she move from relating with Martin to shoving him out of the way so she could interact directly with God?

I didn't see it that way. Tessa doesn't shove Martin out of the way to interact directly with God. She prays for Martin, which is quite different. And the whole book is a preparation ("development") for this, as Tessa learns to love Martin and care for his spiritual welfare, to the point of asking God to help him, when at the beginning she was practically an atheist (or a practical atheist).

Jill wrote: "On "spiritual development," Tessa praying certainly is a "development," I just didn't see anything leading up to it; it seemed to come out of nowhere. How did she move from relating with Martin to ..."

There is that, and I didn't see her beginning to change her life. One prayer with no sign of Tessa wanting to dig deeper into the realities of faith isn't enough. A major theme and catalyst of the book is about a destroyed church to be rebuilt so a community will not disperse. What for, I wonder, why can't a community center do the same thing of bringing the town back together? Why does it have to be a church building? The purpose of a church building is for the faithful to attend Mass, to receive the sacraments, and as a vessel to house the tabernacle - otherwise any assembly hall will do. The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life, as it is stated in one of the Vatican II documents. It isn't the building itself that will restore the community, but the life-giving Eucharist. The narrative never touches these essentials, though to be fair, Martin does speak from memory of baptisms, marriages, and funerals.

Kerstin wrote: "It isn't the building itself that will restore the community, but the life-giving Eucharist..."

Yes, Eucharist can act without a building, as we saw when we read He Leadeth Me. But a village without a church (the building) can lose all sense of community. This is specially true in small villages in Italy and in some sense in all of Europe, but the situation isn't unknown in the US, where most towns, as soon as they were created, used to start with two buildings: a church and a school.

Manuel wrote: "Kerstin wrote: "It isn't the building itself that will restore the community, but the life-giving Eucharist..."

Yes, Eucharist can act without a building, as we saw when we read [book:He Leadeth M..."

I think you and Kerstin are saying the same thing. I suspect Jane is trying to avoid "preaching," but a living church gives life to a town in a way that a community center, or other public space just doesn't.