Reverend Ruth Broggan thinks God has something to answer for. Let go from her busy church in Markham and transferred to a tiny, aging congregation in Toronto, Ruth Broggan finds herself confronted with life’s most terrifying prospect—time to consider what it’s really all about. Letters, e-mails, phone messages and even sermons chronicle Ruth’s crisis of faith. She sorts through how others have found purpose: from Kelly, her Buddhist daughter; from Mark, a priest friend currently on “recall” to Rome to learn to be less flexible; from Kit, a famous lesbian poet who has a long-time unrequited love for Ruth; and even from the rabbi of the synagogue next door. At last, Ruth decides on a radical approach to find the meaning of life: she locks herself into the the manse, refusing to come out until God talks to her.

Once described as “Canada’s answer to Erma Bombeck,” Anne Hines began her writing career as the humour/lifestyle columnist for Canadian Living magazine and is now a contributing editor at Chatelaine where her humourous articles on everyday life appear regularly. She has published two novels; Fishing Up The Moon (Pedlar Press, 1998) and The Spiral Garden (McArthur & Co, 2005), and a collection of nonfiction humour, A Year In HineSight (McArthur & Co, 2002). Anne is currently working on her third novel, based on the Biblical “Song of Solomon.” She is also enrolled part-time in a Masters of Theology degree program at University of Toronto; her goal being “to graduate while there is still religion.” Anne lives in Toronto with her family.

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