Three deaths in three years. His mother. His best friend. And now, his two-year-old daughter. In this moving story a Christian author goes to a retreat center to grieve and face the hard questions about God that he is asking in the wake of these losses. If you have ever felt alone, betrayed, abandoned-if you have found yourself asking God why-this novel may be a source of hope. And if you have ever wondered what heaven is like, this book provides a beautiful vision. Room of Marvels is a masterful, dream-like tale that speaks to the eternal in the midst of our most painful earthly losses. This expanded edition of the beloved book has a new afterword from James Bryan Smith and a discussion guide for group use. Finding your room of marvels will give you reason to live. Again.
"My prevailing thought is, I hope this is true. Jim has written a brave book-one that was so honest at times I felt uncomfortable reading it. But that honesty exposes James as being like the rest of us: at times riddled with fear and anger, sin and sadness, but most importantly full of the holy hope of finally going Home. Whatever we imagine heaven to be-and Jim's imagination has run wild in the b
Andrew Peterson, singer/songwriter
"Really good fiction is at its best when it helps those of us who read it to tell our stories more truly, in all of their grandeur and pathos, in all their joy and suffering, in all their nobility and brokenness. But mostly, it helps us tell them against the backdrop of hope. And with Room of Marvels, hope is what James Bryan Smith brings in the ways we most desperately need it. Read it and laugh.
Curt Thompson, MD, author of The Soul of Shame and Anatomy of the Soul
"Takes us on a marvelous Christian journey, freighted with broad humor and biblical wisdom. This book helps me to remember that the spiritual realm is more real than any other."
