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Mary and O'Neil

A Novel in Stories

By Justin Cronin

By Justin Cronin

By Justin Cronin

By Justin Cronin

By Justin Cronin
Read by Edoardo Ballerini

By Justin Cronin
Read by Edoardo Ballerini

Best Seller
Paperback $16.00

Jan 29, 2002 | ISBN 9780385333597

Ebook $7.99

Jun 29, 2004 | ISBN 9780440335061

Audiobook Download $17.50

Mar 12, 2013 | 515 Minutes

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    Mary and O'Neil by Justin Cronin
    Paperback $16.00
    Jan 29, 2002 | ISBN 9780385333597

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    • Paperback $16.00

      Jan 29, 2002 | ISBN 9780385333597

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      Jun 29, 2004 | ISBN 9780440335061

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    About Mary and O’Neil

    WINNER OF THE PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD • “An astonishingly good first novel . . . fully engaging from the first paragraph. What a gift: to be able to live alongside these people for a while.”—Ann Patchett, Chicago Tribune 

    Mary and O’Neil: They are like any other couple. They have survived loss and found love and managed the occasional hard-earned laugh as they move toward the future, hearts thick with hope. Each human life is ever changing, born of moments large and small—births and deaths and weddings, grave mistakes and chance encounters and acts of surprising courage—and in this unforgettable book, Justin Cronin makes vivid how those moments connect us all, making us more than we could ever be on our own.

    Alight with nuance, sly humor, and startling wisdom, Mary and O’Neil celebrates the uncommon grace to be found in common lives

    Praise for Mary and O’Neil 

    “Admirably fearless.”—The New York Times Book Review

    “The kind of storytelling that goes down easy, and sticks to your ribs.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer

    “Cronin succeeds, touchingly and tenderly, in portraying life itself as a triumph of hope over experience.”—The Boston Globe

    About Mary and O’Neil

    WINNER OF THE PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD • “An astonishingly good first novel . . . fully engaging from the first paragraph. What a gift: to be able to live alongside these people for a while.”—Ann Patchett, Chicago Tribune 

    Mary and O’Neil: They are like any other couple. They have survived loss and found love and managed the occasional hard-earned laugh as they move toward the future, hearts thick with hope. Each human life is ever changing, born of moments large and small—births and deaths and weddings, grave mistakes and chance encounters and acts of surprising courage—and in this unforgettable book, Justin Cronin makes vivid how those moments connect us all, making us more than we could ever be on our own.

    Alight with nuance, sly humor, and startling wisdom, Mary and O’Neil celebrates the uncommon grace to be found in common lives

    Praise for Mary and O’Neil 

    “Admirably fearless.”—The New York Times Book Review

    “The kind of storytelling that goes down easy, and sticks to your ribs.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer

    “Cronin succeeds, touchingly and tenderly, in portraying life itself as a triumph of hope over experience.”—The Boston Globe

    About Mary and O’Neil

    Mary and O’Neil frequently marveled at how, of all the lives they might have led, they had somehow found this one together. When they met at the Philadelphia high school where they’d come to teach, each had suffered a profound loss that had not healed. How likely was it that they could learn to trust, much less love, again?

    Justin Cronin’s poignant debut traces the lives of Mary Olson and O’Neil Burke, two vulnerable young teachers who rediscover in each other a world alive with promise and hope. From the formative experiences of their early adulthood to marriage, parenthood, and beyond, this novel in stories illuminates the moments of grace that enable Mary and O’Neil to make peace with the deep emotional legacies that haunt them: the sudden, mysterious death of O’Neil’s parents, Mary’s long-ago decision to end a pregnancy, O’Neil’s sister’s battle with illness and a troubled marriage. Alive with magical nuance and unexpected encounters, Mary and O’Neil celebrates the uncommon in common lives, and the redemptive power of love.

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

    Also by Justin Cronin

    The Passage (TV Tie-in Edition)
    The City of Mirrors
    The Twelve (Book Two of The Passage Trilogy)
    The Summer Guest
    See all books by Justin Cronin

    Also by Justin Cronin

    The Passage (TV Tie-in Edition)
    The City of Mirrors
    The Twelve (Book Two of The Passage Trilogy)
    The Summer Guest
    See all books by Justin Cronin

    Also by Justin Cronin

    The Passage (TV Tie-in Edition)
    The City of Mirrors
    The Twelve (Book Two of The Passage Trilogy)
    The Summer Guest
    See all books by Justin Cronin

    About Justin Cronin

    Justin Cronin is the New York Times bestselling author of The Passage, The Twelve, The City of Mirrors, Mary and O’Neil (which won the PEN/Hemingway Award and the Stephen Crane Prize), and The Summer Guest. Other honors for his writing… More about Justin Cronin

    About Justin Cronin

    Justin Cronin is the New York Times bestselling author of The Passage, The Twelve, The City of Mirrors, Mary and O’Neil (which won the PEN/Hemingway Award and the Stephen Crane Prize), and The Summer Guest. Other honors for his writing… More about Justin Cronin

    About Justin Cronin

    Justin Cronin is the New York Times bestselling author of The Passage, The Twelve, The City of Mirrors, Mary and O’Neil (which won the PEN/Hemingway Award and the Stephen Crane Prize), and The Summer Guest. Other honors for his writing… More about Justin Cronin

    Product Details

    Category: Literary Fiction | Contemporary Romance

    Paperback | $16.00
    Published by Dial Press Trade Paperback
    Jan 29, 2002 | 256 Pages | 5-1/2 x 8-1/4 | ISBN 9780385333597

    Category: Literary Fiction | Contemporary Romance

    Ebook | $7.99
    Published by Delta
    Jun 29, 2004 | 256 Pages | ISBN 9780440335061

    Category: Literary Fiction | Contemporary Romance | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $17.50
    Published by Random House Audio
    Mar 12, 2013 | 515 Minutes | ISBN 9780804126656

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    Praise

    “An astonishingly good first novel . . . fully engaging from the first paragraph. What a gift: to be able to live alongside these people for a while.”—Ann Patchett, Chicago Tribune

    “A literary love story . . . about the fragility of good fortune and the accidental ways of finding happiness.”—USA Today
    “Justin Cronin must have been a novelist in an earlier life. What else could account for the mature insight and the beautifully controlled technique we find in his debut novel? . . . Cronin succeeds, touchingly and tenderly, in portraying life itself as a triumph of hope over experience.”—The Boston Globe
    “Justin Cronin’s Mary and O’Neil is that rare thing: a wholly engrossing story of the ordinary life.”—Madison Smartt Bell, author of All Souls’ Rising

    Awards

    Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for First Fiction WINNER 2002

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