The Locket [Simon & Schuster] by Richard Paul Evans
This heartwarming novel follows the story of Michael Keddington, an earnest young man who has dropped out of college to care for his dying mother. Upon her death, he finds himself alone, out of step with the world around him, and penniless. He soon finds employment at the Arcadia nursing home. Michael makes an unlikely friend in the reclusive Esther, perhaps not surprisingly as they are both lonely. While Michael struggles with his relationship with the beautiful and wealthy Faye, Esther mourns the loss of her one great love. “Do you suppose life gives us a second chance,” is the question Esther asks Michael and that establishes the premise of the novel.
Michael looses Faye through his own actions right before he is falsely accused of the death of one of the Acadia’s residents. As he fights to save both himself and his relationship, he learns important lessons about love, faith and forgiveness from Esther. At the end of the novel, he concludes:
“Through the course of my life I have come to believe that life is not lived chronologically, by the sweep of a clock’s hand… but rather, experientially… each experience stacked upon the previous, delivering us to loftier planes. Perhaps this best describes my concept of God – the architect of that divine ascent, the hidden arm that slashes our swath through the overgrown flora of destiny, best revealed in the evidence of our lives.”
The Locket is a thought-provoking, uplifting novel for anyone who has ever needed a second chance.
Richard Paul Evans is best known for “The Christmas Box.”
