THE HEIRLOOM

This touching novella, with shades of Catherine Marshall's "Christy" and O. Henry's "The Gift," compensates for its somewhat clumsy prose by engaging the reader's heartstrings. Rev. David Allen, a preacher in a North Carolina mountain town during the Depression, feels overwhelmed by the poverty of his parishioners. One Christmas, he sells his only valuable possession—a rare heirloom Bible—to buy shoes for the children in his church. But by the following Christmas, harsh conditions remain the same, and he despairs that his sacrifice has made no lasting difference. Then a letter arrives to tell him his old Bible has begun a ministry all its own. As the Bible makes its way across the country, seven strangers write to David (whose name and address were written inside the Bible's cover) to explain how its message has transformed them. It's a tender story, despite a pedestrian writing style and a few linguistic anachronisms. (Sept.)