Beneficence Lib/E

A family's only hope to heal their shattered lives is that love is stronger than grief When they meet in the 1930s, Doris and Tup's love is immediate. They marry quickly and Doris commits to the only life Tup ever wanted: working the Senter family farm, where his parents and grandparents and great-grandparents are buried under the old pines. Their lives follow the calming rhythms of the land--chores in the cow barn, haying the fields, tending their gardens--and in this they find immeasurable joy. Soon their first child, Sonny, is born and Doris and Tup understand they are blessed. More children arrive--precocious, large-hearted Dodie and quiet, devoted Beston--but Doris and Tup take nothing for granted. They are grateful every day for the grace of their deep bonds to each other, to their family, and to their bountiful land. As they hold fast to this contentment, Doris is uneasy, and confesses, "We can't ever know what will come." When an unimaginable tragedy turns the family of five into a family of four, everything the Senters held faith in is shattered. The family is consumed by a dark shadow of grief and guilt. Slowly, the surviving Senters must find their way to forgiveness--of themselves and of each other.

About the Author :
Meredith Hall's memoir Without a Map was instantly recognized as a classic of the genre and became a New York Times bestseller. It was named Best Book of the Year by Kirkus and BookSense, as well as Elle's "Readers' Pick of the Year." Ms. Hall was a recipient of the 2004 Gift of Freedom Award from A Room of Her Own Foundation. Her work has appeared in the Five Points, Gettysburg Review, Kenyon Review, Southern Review, New York Times, and many other journals. Hall divides her time between Maine and California. Tom Taylorson is an Earphones Award-winning narrator and Chicago-based actor with over a decade of stage experience. In that time he also built a voice-over career and now primarily works as a voice actor. Tom is an adjunct faculty member at Columbia College Chicago, teaching voice-over for interactive media. Rachel L. Jacobs, an AudioFile Earphones and Parent's Choice Award-winning narrator, narrates books full-time. She has years of experience as a theater and musical theater actress, touring the West Coast (of the US) and China. She received a BA from Oberlin College's Theater Program and did intensive study with the American Conservatory Theatre, the National Theater Institute, and Shakespeare and Company. Versatile and emotive, Rachel breathes life into each of the characters and stories she reads. Cassandra Campbell is an actress, director, and teacher who has performed in New York at the Public Theater, the Mint Theater, and the Clurman Theatre. She is an accomplished voice-over artist whose credits include numerous audiobooks, documentaries, and commercials in both Italian and English.

Review :
"Hall's prose is hewn, sinewy, with moments of electrifying beauty and grace." -- "Boston Globe" "If the word 'luminous' didn't already exist, you'd have to invent it to describe Meredith Hall's radiant new novel Beneficence." -- "Richard Russo, New York Times bestselling author" "It instructs us to savor life, to set aside our cold spirit, to notice human beings closely and tenderly, and to believe that telling life plainly is a virtue which can achieve beauty." -- "Richard Ford, New York Times bestselling author" "Narrators Cassandra Campbell, Tom Taylorson, and Rachel Jacobs channel each member of the close-knit Senter family. Their stunning performances will put listeners in the heart of the family...This beautiful, haunting story, performed with sensitivity, is best enjoyed on audio. Winner of the Audiofile Earphones Award." -- "AudioFile" "Spare but decked with moments of crystalline beauty...gorgeous and moving." -- "Foreword (starred review)" "These voices from the past speak so clearly to our time." -- "Washington Post" "[A] powerful story of love and loss and endurance...transcendent." -- "New York Journal of Books"