Corinne: A Novel

by Rebecca Morrow

Overview

"I was riveted...A modern-day Romeo & Juliet."—Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Two Ways

You want to walk away from the things that are bad for you and never look back.

That's what Corinne Callahan wants.

Cast out of the fundamentalist church she was raised in and cut off from her family, Corinne builds a new life for herself. A good one. But she never stops missing the life—and the love— she's left behind.

It's Enoch Miller who ruins everything for her. It was always Enoch Miller. She'll never get him out from under her skin.

Set over fifteen years and told with astonishing intimacy, Rebecca Morrow's Corinne is the story of a woman who risks everything she's built for the one man she can never have.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250279996
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/12/2022
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	1,084,832
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.50(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Rebecca Morrow is a pseudonym for a New York Times bestselling author.

Editorial Reviews

Washington Post, "12 Noteworthy Books for July and August"

"I was riveted by Corinne, a novel that explores the chasm between religion and faith, between divine love and a love that is divine. It's a modern-day Romeo & Juliet, and you'll whip through pages to hope for the impossible." —Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Two Ways

"This book is full of beautiful sentences that ripped my heart out. It's smart and sexy as hell." —Samantha Irby, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wow, No Thank You

"A refreshingly unconventional love story." —Kirkus Reviews

"Exploring sexual, emotional, and religious barriers in relationships and blending vital discoveries of faith family and self, Morrow's novel cuts deep as it echoes the work of Jeanette Winterson and Elizabeth Acevedo." - Booklist

"Romantically thrilling...What we have here is a deceptively fabulous summer read: A story about sex and longing with the integrity to keep you caring." - Glamour

"Poignant, sensual and ultimately hopeful." - Shelf Awareness

From the Publisher

02/01/2022

Thrown out of the fundamentalist church she had attended since childhood and estranged from her family, Corinne has created a new life for herself but still misses what she has left behind. Particularly Enoch Miller. Will she now risk her settled life for a man who can never be hers? From Morrow, the pseudonym for a best-selling author; with a 125,000-copy first printing.

Library Journal

2022-04-27
Two fundamentalist Christians endure ostracism in the name of true love.

This is a refreshingly unconventional love story between people who are not conventionally attractive. Corinne Callahan wears “plus-sizes” and “always looked bad.” Enoch Miller is described as “massive,” “a slab,” built like a door crammed into an ill-fitting suit. The horizons of these two teens are circumscribed by their evangelical church in Kansas, where women are expected to be modest but where not being pretty is more offensive than immodesty. Although women outnumber men, the men have the dominant roles as deacons and elders. Unmarried young men and women must be chaperoned at all times. The congregation, it seems, has already chosen a fiancee for Enoch, Shannon Frank, whose beauty Corinne envies. In 1992, Enoch and Corinne, both 18, transgress, and he confesses. Being “cast out” of the church enables Corinne to go to college, get out of Kansas, and achieve ad-biz stardom in Boston. Enoch, who repented, did not attend college (which the sect discourages), instead becoming an electrician. The narrative jumps ahead 13 years as her mother's health challenges draw Corinne back home to the provisional embrace of her family. After Shannon, coming out as a lesbian, divorces Enoch, his now precarious position in the church gets even worse when word of his and Corinne’s renewed relationship leaks. Unlike Corinne, entrenched in her apostasy, doggedly devout Enoch continues to attend services even while being shunned. Occasionally one wonders why, in a mobile society, these capable young adults, now 32, choose a restrictive community reminiscent of 17th-century Salem, albeit with a steady diet of high-fructose corn syrup. In one of many pungent observations, Corinne muses, “I don’t just have a scarlet letter; I have, like, a whole scarlet letterman’s jacket.” After a propulsive start, the story suffers from a lack of conflict, unrelieved by the couple’s minutely described premarital sex life, which grows a bit tedious with repetition.

An arch but nonconfrontational look at an enclave of American Christianity.

Kirkus Reviews