Outskirts Press, INC.

A mystical love story that bridges heaven and earth.

Helen Baldwin, a Baptist preacher’s young wife, was raised in one of the poorest regions of southern Appalachia. When her ambitious husband is sent to plant a church in a bustling city in New Jersey, she is expected to create a new life and identity for herself as a woman of social grace and stature. Instead, she accepts a job at the local soup kitchen where she finds a sense of place among the soup kitchen’s homeless and working poor guests. Helen’s growing attraction to one guest in particular, an enigmatic Vietnam veteran, sets the stage for Helen’s struggle to discern between light and darkness – and leads her to embark upon a journey that will force her to confront her own demons from the past.



Incognito appearances in and around the soup kitchen by St. Francis of Assisi (the narrator), St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and other well-known friends of God, turn Saints in the City into an entertaining and meaningful exploration of the idea that the veil between Heaven and earth is thin indeed – and that we are called to “be” what we all intrinsically are: modern saints, often formed in tragic ways.



While it is at its heart a mystical and romantic journey, Saints in the City is also a provocative parable about the pitfalls of moral judgment, love as a powerful, binding force between persons of all social classes and conditions, and the idea that restoration is possible for all people, no matter what is the root of their brokenness or shame.

EXCERPT FROM SAINTS IN THE CITY:



She was glad that she was alone in the house, free from the burden of sharing her thoughts about everything that had just happened. Todd had recently moved his office to the new church house on Maple Street. For Helen, it was a welcome change that made their house feel more like a home. She especially liked having the freedom to listen to some of her favorite bluegrass music at volumes that made Todd frown. It was even worse when Helen danced a jig around the living room, inviting Chester to join her after Todd refused. There was something of her spirit in those old mountain tunes with energetic fiddles and plaintive slide guitars that made her grow wistful and sentimental. Life in Dock Watch Hollow had not been all bad. There were times of sheer beauty and bliss, like when she camped out on Rattlesnake Mountain with Joan and Chester on Saturday nights, loaferin’ about and drinking honey wine that the locals forewarned “kissed like a woman and kicked like a mule,” – then heading out to the ridge at mornglom to see the sun rise over the eastern foothills and stand in shimmering pools of pink and gold in cool, breathless wonder.



She hoped Joan would come to visit her someday. She’d sent her cards, one after another at Christmastime, but had never received a response. She didn’t take it personally, knowing that the cost of a stamp and the trip to the post office was often more than a body could bear in any given month. Still, she longed for female companionship, something that had eluded her since moving north. The women in the city were different, Helen noticed, with their tall, pencil thin heels and confident stride, looking more sparkly than any she’d ever seen before, especially in broad daylight. Back home, such girls were likely to be harlots, or flatlanders in man-suits sent by the coal companies to talk nice to the hillfolk and handout free samples of gourmet coffee and fancy perfume. What they failed to understand was that creek and holler people rejected anything they’d never be able to have twice in a lifetime. That was more torture than treat to them, and Helen was always the first to tell them so. Maybe that’s why she hadn’t made any girlfriends since her arrival. She was unwilling to trust anyone who hid their eyes behind sunglasses as big as fists and lenses as dark as coal. Likewise, she imagined she looked like some kind of freak to them, with her long, unstraightened hair and unsophisticated gait and naked eyes that screamed she was the antichrist of urban chic.