Mother Teresa

The first American publication of the authorized biography of Mother Teresa (published in Britain in 1992), this book was written during a five-year period. The author, an Indian civil servant, has collected many letters and rare photographs, which provide personal charm as she describes the life of this diminutive Albanian nun who has lived in Calcutta since 1928. To read this book is to be suddenly brought up short by Mother Teresa's transformative vision of the world. Mother Teresa sees the dying as the very body of the crucified Christ, and she views leprosy patients as recipients of a gift of God designed to bring them closer to Him. Page by page, the drumbeat of this astonishing way of thinking makes it instantly clear how the founder of the Sisters of Mercy has transformed what should be the most appalling circumstances of sickness, poverty and death into an opportunity to serve the broken body of the living Christ. (Sept.)