Announced January 24, 2002
About the Book
By turns dark and hilariously funny, this stunning fiction debut by an award-winning writer and actor takes readers on a mystically charged journey spanning five generations of one family's sin, guilt and redemption—a narrative feast of racial strife, miracles, terrible secrets and a passionate, enduring love.

Following the curves of history during the first half of the twentieth century, Fall on Your Knees takes us from haunted Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, through the battlefields of World War I, to the emerging jazz scene in New York City, and into the lives of four unforgettable sisters. The mythically charged family—James, a father of intelligence and immense ambition; Materia, his Lebanese child-bride; and their daughters. Kathleen is the eldest, a beautiful talent preparing for a career as an opera diva. Frances is an incorrigible liar and hell-bent bad girl. Mercedes, the obsessive Catholic is the protector of the flock. Lily, the adored invalid, takes us on a quest for truth and redemption.

Fall on Your Knees is a story of inescapable family bonds, of terrible secrets, of miracles, racial strife, attempted murder, birth and death, and forbidden love.

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