The Third Grace

By Deb Elkink

Description:

The past casts a long shadow, especially when it points to a woman’s first love.

Her name was Mary Grace until she fell in love with the French exchange student visiting her family’s Nebraska farm. François renamed her “Aglaia”—after one of the beautiful Three Graces of Greek mythology—and set the seventeen-year-old girl longing for something more than her parents’ simplistic life and faith. Now, fifteen years later, Aglaia works as a costume designer in Denver. Her budding success in the city’s posh arts scene convinces her that she’s left the naïve farm girl far behind. But “Mary Grace” has deep roots, as Aglaia learns during a business trip to Paris. Her discovery of sensual notes that François jotted into a Bible during that long-ago fling, a silly errand imposed by her mother, and the scheming of her sophisticated mentor all conspire to create a thirst in her soul that professional success can’t quench.

The Third Grace takes you on a dual journey across oceans and time in the footsteps of a woman torn between her rural upbringing and her search for self.

Book Takeaway:

To all my lost sisters wandering alone out of earshot—His voice still calls.

Awards:

Why the author wrote this book:

I wrote THE THIRD GRACE to explore personal and cultural identity that conflicts with deeply instilled traditional and spiritual values originating within religious community.

I was raised in an evangelical (Mennonite/Baptist) home and immersed in the Arts from an early age. When traveling France and visiting the Louvre in Paris, I encountered Pradier's lovely statue grouping of The Three Graces of Greek mythology--that incredible encyclopedia of tales attempting to give meaning to the universe. This all mingled to give me an idea for how I might encourage women who had lost their faith in Christ to come back to Scripture--the only words that carry Truth and Life.