The Healing by Gayl Jones

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD'A literary giant, and one of my absolute favourite writers' TAYARI JONESHarlan Jane Eagleton is a faith healer, travelling to small towns, converting sceptics, restoring minds and bodies. But before that she was a rock star's manager and race-track gambler. She's had a fling with her rock star's ex-husband and along the way she's somehow lost her own husband - a medical anthropologist now travelling with a medicine woman in Africa.

Harlan tells her story from the end backwards, drawing us ever deeper into her world and the mystery at the heart of her tale - the story of her first healing. 'An important American writer . .

. The Healing examines precisely what its title announces: healing from silence, from physical attacks and treachery, from spiritual and cultural isolation, from the pain of old-fashioned, aching, bluesy love . .

. It is also a very funny book . .

. A moving affirmation of forgiveness and trust . .

. The Healing should be cause for hope, sustenance and even celebration' - Valerie Sayers, New York Times