Rue Shaw has everything--a much loved child, a solid marriage, and a job she loves. Saying Grace takes place in Rue's mid-life, when her daughter is leaving home, her parents are failing, her husband is restless and the school she has built is being buffeted by changes in society that affect us all. Funny, rich in detail and finally stunning, this novel presents a portrait of a tight-knit community in jeopardy, and of a charming woman whose most human failing is that she wants things to stay the same. Saying Grace is about the fragility of human happiness and the strength of convictions, about keeping faith as a couple whether it keeps one safe or not. Beth Gutcheon has a gift for creating a world in microcosm and capturing the grace in the rhythms of everyday life. “Ms. Gutcheon knows private schools, and she knows her craft-and that’s a winning combination.” - New York Times Book Review “By turns heartwarming and heartbreaking.” - Boston Globe “Deliciously readable” - San Francisco Chronicle “Saying Grace is a smart, funny, sane novel ― the kind that I ransack bookstores to find.” - Adair Lara, author of At Adair’s House “Written with a quiet authority and power, these interesting, complicated characters involve us in their concerns, enlighten us with their humanity.” - Michael Dorris,author of Paper Trail, A Yelloew Raft on Blue Water, and Broken Cord “I worried that I might not love Saying Grace as much as I had Domestic Pleasures, but I loved it just as much, maybe even more. Beth Gutcheon is a wonderful writer.” - Ann LaMott, author of Bird by Bird “The reader faces that most wonderful perplexity: whether to read quickly for the story, which rivets, or slowly for the writing, which enthralls.” - Sandra Scofield, author of Opal on Dry Ground and A Chance to See Egypt Rue Shaw has everything--a much loved child, a solid marriage, and a job she loves. Saying Grace takes place in Rue's mid-life, when her daughter is leaving home, her parents are failing, her husband is restless and the school she has built is being buffeted by changes in society that affect us all. Funny, rich in detail and finally stunning, this novel presents a portrait of a tight-knit community in jeopardy, and of a charming woman whose most human failing is that she wants things to stay the same. Saying Grace is about the fragility of human happiness and the strength of convictions, about keeping faith as a couple whether it keeps one safe or not. Beth Gutcheon has a gift for creating a world in microcosm and capturing the grace in the rhythms of everyday life. Beth Gutcheon is the critically acclaimed author of the novels, The New Girls , Still Missing , Domestic Pleasures , Saying Grace , Five Fortunes , More Than You Know , Leeway Cottage , and Good-bye and Amen . She is the writer of several film scripts, including the Academy-Award nominee The Children of Theatre Street . She lives in New York City. Saying Grace By Gutcheon, Beth Perennial Copyright © 2004 Beth R. Gutcheon All right reserved. ISBN: 0060927275 Chapter One It was two days before the opening of school when the Spanish teacher dropped dead. Dropped is the right word; she was on her knees in the garden, cleaning out the crocosmia bed, when she felt a sudden lightball of pain in her chest, and then was herself extinguished. She toppled face-forward into the fragrant California earth, and lay there, stiffening in the September sunshine, wearing her green-and-yellow gardening gloves. She was otherwise dressed for work. It was the faculty's first day back at The Country School, and the news of her death found her colleagues gathered in Packard gymnasium for a CPR course, performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on rubber women. As her colleagues mourned and comforted each other, Rue Shaw left the gym to hurry across campus to her office. Under the circumstances, she was struck by the illusion the parched campus imparted of a serene and manageable universe. The fields where the bigger boys played football were freshly mowed and green from a summer of sprinklers. As she passed, Manuel was laying down lines in white lime so that all could see the structure of the game, the clear boundary between in and out, good and bad, safe and sorry. Everywhere the scent of cut grass mingled with the smell of eucalyptus. The offices of the Head, and all the rest of the administration, were in a building known as Home, because it had been the original homestead when the campus was a ranch. The Plum family who pioneered it had grown prosperous and built a grand Victorian farmhouse with wide, covered porches and the latest in gingerbread trim, in which Rue now lived. From there the Plum family had raised livestock and apricots and used the old homestead for a sheep barn. Rue Shaw now bustled into Home through the dutch door, which Merilee kept open at the top to let in the sunlight and the perfume of the outside air and closed at th