Corinne: A Novel

“I was riveted by Corinne, a novel that explores the chasm between religion and faith, between divine love and a love that is divine . . . You’ll whip through the pages to hope for the impossible.”
—Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hollow Bones

Cast out of a strict religious community as a teenager, a woman comes home to make peace—only to find herself entangled with the man she left behind. Initially published under a pseudonym, this unforgettable novel has now been claimed by Rainbow Rowell, the bestselling author of Cherry Baby and Eleanor & Park.

You want to walk away from the things that hurt you.

That’s what Corinne Callahan wants.

Exiled from her fundamentalist church at eighteen, Corinne builds a new life out in the world—a good life.

But she can’t walk away from herself.

Corinne was raised in the church, baked in it. She’s shaped by her upbringing in ways her new friends and coworkers will never understand, and she still longs for the family she left behind. The family who cut her off.

Now in her early thirties, Corinne moves back to her hometown, hoping to finally find some acceptance there. All she wants is to be welcome again under her mother’s roof and invited to her family’s big Sunday dinners . . .

The last person she expects to see in that house is Enoch Miller.

You want to walk away from the things that hurt you. You want to bury them and never think of them again.

But Corinne has never been able to forget Enoch Miller. Enoch, the deacon’s son, the boy who was her only friend . . . Corinne risked everything for him once.

Is she willing to lose it all again?

Told with astonishing intimacy and bone-deep empathy, Corinne is a truly gripping novel about broken faith and unbreakable shame, and how to bear the sort of love the Bible calls unquenchable. Rainbow Rowell originally published Corinne under a pseudonym but has now stepped forward to claim and revise the book, bringing new insight and depth to the story. Ultimately, Rowell says, she simply loved the characters too much to abandon them—so much so that Corinne’s story continues in the upcoming sequel, Catch Us the Foxes.

“Nobody makes you feel alive when reading like Rainbow Rowell. Corinne is a sensuous, enthralling reading experience that will leave you breathless.”
—John Green, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hollywood Ending