An NPR commentator’s story of an unlikely epiphany and the healing power of faith

After years of sleeping around, working as a waitress, and suffering booze- induced blackouts, Heather King settled into sobriety, marriage, and a financially lucrative but unfulfilling career in a Beverly Hills law firm. As someone who had reached middle age “never believing in much of anything,” she found herself in the last place she thought she’d end up: the Catholic church.

Redeemed describes the steps of King’s journey—from finding herself holed up on the couch reading Hermits of the World (and then wondering why she and her husband weren’t having sex) to dealing with the breast cancer that brought her face-to-face with the Virgin Mary. With the death of her father and the devastation of divorce, she connects with Jesus Christ: “A guy who hung out with lepers, paralytics, the possessed: this is someone I can trust.”

This is a profound, fervent, darkly funny tale of an ongoing conversion by a Catholic who, however devout, is about as far from saintlike as can be imagined. Fans of Lauren Winners’s Girl Meets God and Anne Lamott’s writings will be drawn to King’s refreshing sense of humor, mesmerizing voice, and piercing honesty.

“This memoir deserves to be as popular as Elizabeth Gilbert’s best- selling Eat, Pray, Love.”
—The Boston Globe

“Rather than offering easy epiphanies and candy-coated narratives, King’s book is as honest and raw as the model of the spiritual memoir, the “Confessions” of St. Augustine….To witness someone of such emotional dexterity and moral depth struggle is moving and instructive….King is nonjudgmental, generous and insightful about the spiritual journey.”
—Los Angeles Times

“A story with depth, rare balance, humor, and with a near-perfect eye for what is important, true to the perception that ‘sin, degradation, and scandal aren’t that interesting,’ but ‘conversion is.’” A conversion story along the lines of St. Augustine’s classic. You’ll learn how grace works.”
—Ron Rolheiser, author of The Holy Longing and The Restless Heart

“This is really the story of two callings—to faith and to a life’s work…a riveting depiction of a lost soul found”
—Kirkus

“I’m hugely grateful for this ‘misfit,’ and for her words, which I keep copying down into my own misfit notebook. In hard times, Heather King is one of the people of hope.”
—Jean Valentine, National Book Award-winning author of Door in the Mountain

“In its structure and purpose, Heather King’s Redeemed is not unlike St. Augustine’s Confessions. That first Christian conversion narrative, often misconstrued as being an acknowledgment of past sins, is really a confession of faith in God and the luminous praise of a grateful heart. Similarly, in this well-written, insightful and funny book, Heather King, a frequent commentator on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” does not deny her hard life….Rather, she writes an eloquent hymn of gratitude and wonder for her Catholic life.”
—National Catholic Reporter

“King writes from the heart.”
—Rocky Mountain News

“A must-read for anyone on the spiritual journey that defines the essence of learning to live life on life’s terms, while there’s still time.”
—William Cope Moyers, author of Broken

"A brutally honest, moving and heartfelt memoir."
—America, The National Catholic Weekly

A lawyer turned writer, Heather King is a commentator for NPR’s All Things Considered and a communicant at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Los Angeles. She is the author of the memoir Parched. Her work has appeared in the Best American Spiritual Writing anthologies.

Imprint: Viking Adult
Distributor: Penguin Group USA, Inc
Publication Date: 02-21-2008
Pages: 256
Measurements: 8.44in X 5.78in X 0.94in X 0.78lb