The Dearly Beloved: A Read with Jenna Pick

A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick. This novel traces two married couples whose lives become entangled when their husbands are jointly hired as copastors at the historic Third Presbyterian Church in New York City in the 1960s. Charles and Lily meet James and Nan in Greenwich Village in 1963. Charles was destined to become a history professor at Harvard until an unorthodox lecture about faith leads him to ministry. He falls in love with Lily, who is fiercely intellectual and elegantly stern—and who tells him with certainty she will never believe in God. James, the youngest son from a hardscrabble Chicago family, spent his youth angry at his alcoholic father. Nan grew up in Mississippi as the devout daughter of a minister and a debutante. Despite his skepticism, her gentle faith changes the course of his life. Set against the backdrop of turbulent social change facing the city and congregation, the novel explores faith and reason, marriage and children, forgiveness and commitment, and the ways people find meaning in their lives.