A Bed by the Window

by M. Scott Peck

Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The memorable scenes are powerfully drawn. . . . A spiritual mystery . . . both moving and brave.”—The New York Times Book Review

The acclaimed author of the phenomenal bestseller The Road Less Traveled adds a natural gift for storytelling to his spiritual insight and profound awareness of human nature in this mesmerizing, deeply moving new work.

Among those within the self-contained world of the Willow Glen nursing home are two extraordinary people. One is there to give care, the other to receive it. Yet together they form a bond of love and trust that transcends their expectations and changes their lives.

Stephen Solaris—Imprisoned in a helpless body since birth, unable to even speak, he has an incredible ability to touch the hearts and minds of those around him with the power of his personality.

Heather Barsten—a nurse whose devotion to her patients surpasses her ability to fulfill her own needs. From Stephen she learns the importance of being true to one’s heart—and she finds herself falling in love.

Then violence shatters Willow Glen. Now a murderer roams the halls of the home, and the residents and staff must confront a truly terrifying evil and face their innermost fears, suspicions, and darkest secrets. . . . 

A Bed by the Window is an exceptional work, a gripping psychological thriller and a luminous synthesis of Peck’s thinking on good and evil, spiritual growth, and the miracles worked by love.

“Scott Peck . . . [is] a born storyteller. . . . His unique insights and wisdom [come] through pin] pure story. This is . . . a page-turner, a book that you start and can’t put down.”—Madeleine L’Engle, author of A Wrinkle of Time

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780553353877
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/01/1991
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	501,044
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

M. Scott Peck, M.D., is the author of several New York Times bestsellers, including The Road Less Traveled, which has spent more than ten years on the Times list. He and his wife, Lily, live in northern Connecticut and have been the recipients of several awards for peacemaking.

Read an Excerpt

Mrs. Georgia Bates sat in the back seat of the station wagon, eyeing the dirty ridges of February snow along the edges of Route 83 with distaste. Her son, Kenneth, was driving. Marlene, her daughter-in-law, sat in the front seat next to him. The flat midwestern farmland, still mostly white with the vestiges of the last storm, stretched to the horizon past both sides of the road. Once Georgia had liked to think about the earth lying beneath the snow as pregnant with hidden new life. But it had been decades since she cared to have such thoughts.
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "A Bed by the Window"
by .
Copyright © 1991 M. Scott Peck.
Excerpted by permission of Random House Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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What People are Saying About This

Phyllis Theroux

"You'll learn a lot about yoursel in A Bed by the Window. You won't recoil from knowledge anymore than you'll recoil from love."

Madeleine Lengle

"Scott Peck...is a blunt storyteller....His unique insights and wisdom comes through in pure story. This is...a page-turner, a book that you start and can't put down."

Editorial Reviews

Setting his first novel in the Midwestern community of New Warsaw, psychologist Peck ( The Road Less Traveled ) focuses on inmates of the Willow Glen nursing home. This small but fascinating world is soon disrupted by the murder of its most famous and charismatic resident, spastic quadriplegic Stephen Solaris, who taps messages with his knuckles on a letter board and is the only non-elderly resident. Ex-New Yorker Lt. Petri, a fresh recruit to the local police force, plunges into an investigation, armed with a fistful of preconceptions about nursing homes and seniors, and is saved from making a false arrest by the fortunate interference of residents Marion Grochowski and Georgia Bates. Petri admits his mistake and broadens his search, finally seeking help from Dr. Kolnietz, Willow Glen therapist. Peck's interest in the metaphysical is well placed in the nursing home setting, where death is an expected visitor. Yet the author's examination of virtue is more searching than his consideration of evil, and some characters experience unconvincing changes of heart. But that should not deter the reader from enjoying a generally intelligent look at human growth. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Set in a Midwestern nursing home, a newly transplanted New York police officer's first homicide involves a young cerebral palsy patient who, while unable to speak or move, has had a great influence on those with whom he has come in contact. Tom Petri faces the odd assortment of Willow Glen's patients and staff while also confronting his own preconceptions, prejudices, and emotional upheaval. The author's expertise in medicine and psychology is evident. Peck is the author of the self-help best seller The Road Less Traveled (LJ 9/15/78) and other titles, but his collection of typically troubled and/or bizarre characters seems at times excessive; in fact, the existence of some appears pointless. Not a necessary acquisition. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/15/90.-- Judith A. Gifford, Salve Regina Coll. Lib., Newport, R.I.

Library Journal