January 2024 Book, The Mermaid Chair

 

Talk About Books meets every third Wednesday of the month at Guilford Free Library at 6:30 pm. On January 17th we will be discussing the Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd.

Inside the church of a Benedictine monastery on Egret Island, just off the coast of South Carolina, resides a beautiful and mysterious chair ornately carved with mermaids and dedicated to a saint who, legend claims, was a mermaid before her conversion.

When Jessie is summoned home to the island to cope with her eccentric mother's inexplicable act of violence, she is living a conventional life with her husband, Hugh. Jessie loves Hugh, but once on the island, she finds herself drawn to Brother Thomas, a monk who is soon to take his final vows. Monk creates a community of unforgettable island women living in a natural setting of marshlands, tidal creeks and majestic egrets. 

Is the power of the mermaid chair only a myth or will it alter the course of Jessie's life? What transpires will unlock the roots of her mother's tormented past and will allow Jessie to become true to herself.

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