Meeting Mara Sloan

Description of Meeting Mara Sloan

Meeting Mara Sloan begins as a mystery, involving a journalist’s attempt to exploit a notorious act of violence, but then evolves into an exploration of faith and redemption.

A deadly shooting at the state prison has led to accusations that one of the guards runs a drug ring within the prison.  This guard was seriously injured in the shooting and is the uncle of the main character, Coyle Collins, who was recently paroled from that prison.  The novel’s narrative alternates between the points of view of Coyle and a journalist who hopes to use this prison story to propel him to the national media.

To pay for the expensive lawyer his uncle will need, Coyle violates his parole and agrees to act as a courier for a local crime boss.  But when he reaches his destination, a remote hotel at which he is to meet his anonymous contact, he runs into Mara Sloan, a former high school classmate for whom he once had a distant infatuation.  Not wanting her to discover the reason he has come to this hotel, he quickly accepts her invitation to go to a nearby coffeehouse to talk, before the other parties to the transaction arrive.

Mara operates an art studio in an old barn, where she is sculpting and designing a religious shrine.  She has been working on this project since her faith conversion years earlier in New York City –a conversion that occurred after her art career nosedived into drugs.  Coyle similarly encountered Christian belief through his uncle in prison, but his faith didn’t hold after parole and his struggle to survive on the outside.  It takes Coyle’s reconnection with Mara, as well as his encounters with various quirky volunteers at the grotto, to revive that nascent religious belief.

Coyle is drawn to the new life this small grotto community offers him, and Mara urges him to abandon his dismal existence in the city.  But Coyle lacks faith in his ability to change his life, so he leaves.   An hour into his drive home, Coyle remembers that Mara left something in his trunk.  He turns around. When he gets back to the hotel, where he had dropped Mara after leaving the grotto, he finds her trapped under debris caused by an explosion.  He tries to rescue her as they wait for the firefighters to arrive at this remote location.  It is during this wait, as the fire intensifies, that the drama of the Mara-Coyle relationship likewise intensifies.  And it is during this increasingly life-threatening situation that Mara reawakens Coyle’s long-dormant faith and leads him to a deep encounter with God.

Meanwhile, back in the city, a witness recovers from a coma, and exculpating evidence appears that will exonerate Coyle’s uncle from the accusations against him. But the journalist fails to grasp the truth of why these events occurred.  He sees only the strangest of coincidences and knows nothing of the faithful prayers that led to the events.

Literary Awards

2021 International Book AwardWinner

2021 Next Generation Indie Book Award

Winner, New York City Big Book Award

Winner, Book Excellence Award (Ontario)

2021 American Fiction Award