Mt. Moriah’s Wake

Carro debuts with the emotional but disorderly story of a young woman who is tormented by a tragedy that consumes her with grief and tests her Christian faith. JoAnn Wilson, 26, works at an ad agency in Chicago. Pregnant and separated from her husband, she returns to her hometown near Atlanta to attend the wake of her aunt Doro, who had raised her since the age of eight after both of her parents died in a car accident. In a series of flashbacks, JoAnn confronts her internal struggles and reasons for turning away from Christianity—and leaving Georgia—four years earlier. As a child, she had difficulty adjusting to rural life with a new parental figure, her flamboyant but religiously devout aunt, especially when Doro converts her rundown farmhouse in Mt. Moriah into a bed-and-breakfast. Most traumatic was the murder of her best friend Grace, which sent JoAnn fleeing to Chicago with a terrible secret. Now despondent over her future and wondering what to do about the pregnancy, JoAnn seeks advice from dear old family friend and pastor Madison Blair. The nonlinear narrative of JoAnn’s experiences sometimes confuse more than clarify, but Carro pulls off a thoughtful account of JoAnn losing and regaining her faith. This will charm and inspire. (Self-published)