2020. Mary’s Dowry Productions
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Gifts Unexpected
By Stephen Hand
Stephen Hand’s novella, Gifts Unexpected, is a story about a broken young girl and the hermit-priest who saved her and others; it is a story which shows how even suffering and tragedy birth hope and redemption in those open to the gift of Being.
Gifts Unexpected is often a ragged chronicling of contemporary realities which threaten to extinguish our hope. With the same palette of honesty, however, Stephen Hand restores an arid landscape to a promise of health.
By undertaking the decencies that others have laid down, Father Joseph acts as human ark to keep others afloat until they can sight safer harbors. — C. O’Reilly