Beneficence

family] member and pushes them into newfound territory. The result is a profoundly moving family saga that provides an engrossing reading experience.” —Public Libraries Online “Beneficence is one of the best novels I’ve read all year, the perfect antidote to troubled times, beautifully composed and lyrically told. I cannot recommend it strongly enough.” —Manhattan Book Review  “An impressively skilled storyteller, Meredith Hall has produced the kind of novel that will linger in the mind and memory of the reader long after the book itself has been finished.” —Midwest Book Review Advance Praise “This fiercely beautiful novel took hold of me from the very first page. Beneficence is at once a page-turner and an artistic triumph. Meredith Hall takes on the old universal truths, as Faulkner once put it: love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. I loved this book, and will be thinking about the Senter family for a long time to come.” —Dani Shapiro, New York Times bestselling author “All novels are instruction kits for how they must be read. Meredith Hall’s novel Beneficence is forceful in this way and uniquely fruitful. Beneficence will remind a reader of Willa Cather in that it instructs us to savor life, to set aside our cold spirit, to notice human beings closely and tenderly, and to believe that telling life plainly is a virtue which can achieve beauty.” —Richard Ford “Beneficence is amazing in its vision. Luminous. With wisdom and compassion, Meredith Hall writes about the capacity for atonement. Beneficence, then. Goodness. Generosity to see deeply, to live through fear and pain on your journey toward the awareness of splendor.” —Ursula Hegi, New York Times bestselling author of Stones from the River “In the style of Marilynne Robinson and Stewart O'Nan, Hall writes with quiet urgency, drawing us close to the broken heart of one family's unspeakable loss. Hauntingly beautiful, emotionally devastating, and infused with great compassion, Beneficence shines a light on that liminal space between hate and affection, fate and freewill, mercy and grace--and the power we have to redeem or destroy those we love the most.” —Kim Barnes, Pulitzer Prize finalist for In the Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown Country “An emotional journey so deep into the lives of others, you will find yourself, and the people you love, staring back with a face for each of Meredith Hall’s characters. One of the best books I’ve ever read, this quiet, family saga—a masterpiece of compassion and objectivity—has changed the way I see everyone around me, forever.” —Simon Van Booy, winner of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award “Beneficence is a beautiful novel, quiet and meditative, exquisite in its language, moving in its emotional reach. It delivers a particular time and presence—a Maine farm in the 1950s—with deep love and understanding. This book is like a communion with the land.” —Roxana Robinson, award-winning author of Dawson’s Fall