Story Behind The Book
The House On receiving the very thing she wants—a divorce and the power to sell their house—over which they have fought the past year—Anna Manning learns that Edward, her soon-to-be ex-husband is dying from cancer. A faithful wife for three decades, and stay-at-home mother of four children, Anna endured Edward’s constant absence due to travel for his international real estate firm and numerous extra-marital affairs. With their children now adults, Edward has less than six months, possibly three, to live. Anna takes him home to die in the house she has fought so vigorously to sell. But letting go of someone who has caused so much pain in your life doesn’t come easily. Edward has changed. There are Anna and Edward’s four children, three of whom who are married and struggling to endow their families with meaning and purpose. There is also Inman who loves Anna, and gives the one thing Edward denied her—passion and intimacy. And lastly there is Anna. An art history major turned wife and mother out of college, she had planned on divorcing Edward and with her proceeds from the sale of the house move to France. Anna would visit and study the works in Europe’s famous museums—perhaps work as a docent in one. News of Edward’s terminal illness provokes her to understand the present, rooted in a wellspring of the past and pouring into a future without him. The House shows what happens when one adopts the belief that: All hold regret and are seeking forgiveness. Our salvation rests in the hands of others—most particularly the ones we love, and who have treated us wrongly.