Martha Witt's Holiday Gift Suggestion

Martha Witt is the author of Broken As Things Are, the story of a young girl's coming of age under the shadow of an obsessive older brother in a North Carolina setting that E.L. Doctorow calls "somewhere between Harper Lee and Flannery O'Connor." Witt knows that part of the country well--it's where she was born and raised. She studied creative writing at John Hopkins, then came to New York University for an MFA in fiction; she has remained in New York City, where she now lives with her husband and their two children. (You can hear her discussing the novel on WUNC-FM's The State of Things.)

There is one book that I believe merits particular attention for the careful, poetic way in which it addresses some of the most difficult moral issues. Joe Caldwell's Bread for the Baker’s Child is a novel that explores sexuality, faith, violence, forgiveness and redemption at the deepest levels. The narrative begins with the revelation that Sister Rachel's brother, Phillip, is in jail for a large sum of money that he stole and anonymously donated to her order. Rachel's dilemma about whether or not to tell the ill and dying Mother Superior in her care about her brother's predicament sets the stage for Rachel and Phillip's narratives, situated in their respective institutions. Caldwell masterfully weaves in and out of the siblings' stories, ultimately leading us to a natural yet unexpected end. It is deeply gratifying to be in the hands of such an original and flawless storyteller.