The Book of Cain: On Adding a New Book to the Family Bible

A memoir of the death of the author's mother, shows how our ordinary lives and family relationships relate to the family chronicles recorded in the Bible. Faith helps us see the sacramental depths of everyday life, loss, suffering, and death. With the skill of a professional writer/playwright, Cain constructs a narrative around moments in the process of his mother's death--from her diagnosis with terminal cancer, until her death, along the way disclosing hints about the background and backstory of all the characters and the way this crisis reveals new depths and opens up possibility for reconciliation, and growth. The religious/spiritual dimension is always there--not just in explicit references to religious practice, but in a wider framework that gives meaning to the ultimate experience of human existence.