Sufficient Grace

In her moving debut novel, Arnoult chronicles a Southern middle-aged wife and mother's descent into schizophrenia and the two families—one white, one black—transformed by her. When Gracie Hollaman goes missing, her husband, Ed, is convinced she's left him—but in fact, Gracie has left herself, at the behest of disembodied voices, for a hallucinatory world "[i]n the narrow space between what is real and what is not." Gracie wanders into the small African-American town of Rockrun and is taken into the bustling household of Mama Toot and Mattie, a mother and her widowed daughter-in-law beset by grief. Compulsive and adamant, Gracie clings to painting rituals and the voices in her head, defying her family's attempts to reclaim her after Toot tracks them down: " 'My circle's closing. I need to be the ex-wife.' " The circle Gracie refers to finds expression throughout the book—one circle must be closed before another can begin—as each character learns how to say good-bye to her old life and begin anew. In brisk scenes, Arnoult's rhythmic prose beautifully reveals the human potential for unconditional love and faith, and wholly convinces us—despite the heartache her mental illness causes—of Gracie's essential wisdom and worthiness. (June)