This novel is about a teenage girl, Ann Holmes, who claims to see the Virgin Mary. A sixteen-year-old runaway, Ann is an itinerant mushroom picker who lives in a tent. But on a November afternoon, in the foggy woods of North Fork, Washington, the Virgin comes to her, clear as day. Father Collins -- a young priest new to North Fork -- finds Ann disturbingly alluring. But it is up to him to evaluate -- impartially -- the veracity of Ann's sightings:...

The Scarlet Letter was originally published in 1850 and was a bestseller at the time. This powerful American story of secret love and sin, of spiritual hypocrisy and moral courage, and of female bravery during a time when women were rarely respected, resonated with readers then and continues to do so now.

Set in the staunchly Puritan world of 1600s Boston Hester Prynne has committed adultery and given birth to an illegitimate daughter,

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"Years after her son's fatal overdose, grieving mother Rachel Higgins learns that his addiction may have grown out of damage suffered at the hands of a pedophile priest while he was in high school. Looking for vengeance, she targets the Catholic Church's most visible local figure, Archbishop Francis Gillespie. When the archbishop begins receiving anonymous threats, local police dismiss them, saying they're not credible. So he turns to his friends,...