What Remains Is Grace

What Remains Is Grace
A Novel

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Tina N. Shelton

​Award-winning author pens a moving literary ?? about the inconvenience of aging and the power of going home

 

It's 1997, and college grad Grace Downing is taking the next big step in her career: a teaching job on the North Shore of Chicago. She packs up her life and makes the journey, only to discover upon arrival that the offer has been rescinded. Reeling, she refuses to return home and ends up on the South Side, teaching Honors English at the very same high school where her childhood crush now works.

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Longtime family friend Candi has been living in Grace's childhood home for the last several years, and had been caring for their elderly neighbor Nelda, who passed away the year prior. So when a devastated Grace calls her, Candi welcomes her with open arms despite internal battles with grief, memories, and questions about Nelda's life-and the looming decision of whether to care for her estranged husband next.

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When Grace's sister comes to stay with them, the three band together to learn more about Nelda's history, her myriad secrets, and her unfinished stories. As the women wrestle with their individual pasts, they grow into roles they didn't expect—and discover God in ways new and profound for each of them.

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Tina N. Shelton is the registrar at Chicago Theological Seminary and a pastor in the Northern Illinois Conference of the United Methodist Church. She is the award-winning author of This Ain't No Promised Land. Find her at tinanshelton.com.