Introduction

"On her honeymoon trip, Emily Stanton-young, beautiful, woefully unsatisfied-lies awake long after her adoring husband has fallen asleep. Studying his face she puzzles over this new intimacy she's entered into, 'a bond almost of strangers who find themselves the victims of a common disaster...'absorbing...exquisitely sensual scenes." (The Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Set in the 1920s and journeying through Australia, Tunisia, and France, Conditions of Faith is a novel of one woman's life and the events that define it: a hasty wedding to an older man; an act of adultery; an unplanned pregnancy-and the insistent, gnawing hunger for a purpose in life beyond marriage and motherhood.

"Ambitious and convincing...highly readable...it explores the psyche of a woman torn between family and career with subtlety and grace." (The New York Times Book Review)

"It lingers in my mind...I am still thinking about Emily."(Colleen McCullough)

Editorial Review

Award-winning author Alex Miller uses a sensitive touch to explore deep issues of the mind, heart, and spirit in Conditions of Faith, a thoughtful novel about a young Australian woman in the 1920s who longs to discover her purpose for living. After finishing school, 24-year-old Emily Stanton's life is adrift. When Georges Elder, representing his Parisian firm, comes to Melbourne to consult with Emily's father about building a bridge in Sydney Harbor, he is enchanted with Emily and proposes. Emily makes a hasty decision to marry him and leave her family for a new life in Paris. When her decision fails to bring her contentment, she quickly succumbs to a chance affair with a priest, the implications of which reverberate throughout the rest of the story. Miller slowly brings into focus Emily's wrestling with her life--her sexuality, her spirituality, her ability to enter into motherhood wholeheartedly, and her desire to bring to fruition the life of the mind. He sets his tale against the backdrops of Australia, France, and Tunisia, and uses colors, sounds, and fragrances that will astonish the reader with their vividness and clarity. Although Emily's final choices may dismay some readers, her desire to fully embrace her life will resonate with any woman who has ever yearned to discover herself. --Cindy Crosby

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