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The Dead Don't Dance (Awakening Series #1)

Product ID : 41985635


Galleon Product ID 41985635
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About The Dead Don't Dance

Product Description The Dead Don't Dance is a bittersweet yet triumphant love story—a tale of one man's journey through the darkness of despair and into the light of hope. In a sleepy rural town in South Carolina, Dylan and Maggie Styles are a young couple in love, preparing eagerly for the birth of their first son. But events take a tragic turn in the delivery room, and their child is delivered stillborn. When Maggie hemorrhages and slips into a coma, Dylan slips into what can only be described as a walking coma, holding vigil at his beloved wife’s bedside. Usually tough and self-reliant, an outdoorsman and a farmer, Dylan finds that everything he has known is suddenly thrown into doubt. Refusing to give up on Maggie’s recovery, a devastated Dylan takes a job as an English professor in order to pay for Maggie’s medical bills. Dylan connects with his students despite himself and offers hope to others amid his own disappointment and grief. As Dylan waits for some change in Maggie's condition, he reflects on his life and hers. Through friends and grace-filled moments of insight, Dylan slowly begins to heal, but it will take a second tragedy—and an anxious period of wrestling with God—to truly awaken him from his stupor and open him up to a new life. New York Times bestselling author Charles Martin’s debut novel Full-length emotive Southern fiction Book 1 of the Awakening Series Book 2: Maggie From Publishers Weekly Competent writing and a poignant plot combine to make Martin's first novel with newcomer fiction imprint WestBow an absorbing read for fans of faith-based fiction. In rural South Carolina, Maggie and Dylan expectantly await the birth of their first child. Tragedy strikes when their son is stillborn and Maggie slips into a long-term coma. Refusing to give up on her recovery, a devastated Dylan marks time earning money as an adjunct English professor at Digger Junior College. In a role vaguely reminiscent of the teachers in Mr. Holland's Opus or To Sir with Love, Dylan connects with his students in spite of himself and is able to offer hope to others amid his own disappointment and grief. As Dylan waits for some change in Maggie's condition, he reflects on his life and hers in numerous seamless flashbacks. Martin integrates faith elements into the story with a deft touch. But what makes this book sing is not the plot, which sometimes feels disaster-heavy (rape, abortion, coma, car accident), but the delightfully quirky characters. From Amos, the black, bald deputy who is Dylan's best friend, to Bryce Kai MacGregor, a Vietnam veteran who lives north of town in a drive-in movie theater, drinks Old Milwaukee beer and plays the bagpipes mostly in the buff, they are ingeniously imaginative creations. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Although not perfect, life for Dylan Styles is initially just the way he likes it. Once a professional student, he finds his footing in Digger, South Carolina, the small farming community where he grew up. Here on his grandparents' old farm, Dylan and his wife, Maggie, find happiness in the daily rhythms of the natural world. Maggie's pregnancy only adds to their contentment. However, a complicated delivery changes everything; their son is stillborn, and Maggie falls into a deep coma. Suddenly Dylan is thrown into a position of painful uncertainty. His doubt extends into theological realms as he asks the agonizing question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" Fortunately, he is surrounded by people willing to help and lands a teaching position at a local college. Here Dylan finds an example in one of his students who handles her own pregnancy from a brutal rape with infinite grace. Like God in the story of Job, the author tests his protagonist repeatedly until Dylan returns to an underlying truth that was never really lost. Jerry Eberle Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Ab