The God of Shattered Glass (Emerald City Books)

Description: Where does one find hope in the midst of profound suffering? Tony Backman aches to know. A blues-harmonica-playing child psychologist at a residential treatment center in Santa Rosa California Tony specializes in narrative therapy. His story-based technique empowers abused teenagers to reimagine their lives through myths and folktales and so restore their vitality. Such vitality however eludes Tony in his own life. Mired in depression he longs for his fractured family and fends off childhood flashbacks too painful to face. Tonys mentor recommends classical underworld myths as a roadmap for the spiritual journey toward healing and hope but Tony is too drained for the undertaking. Until Carey Foster enters his life. Carey is a golden-voiced eleven-year-old choral soloist at a local Catholic boys home. Brought to Tonys treatment center with his wrists sliced Carey cowers mutely with his secrets in the centers locked ward a flicking middle finger his only beacon. Careys healing depends on Tonys ability to navigate the labyrinth of deception and cryptic self-disclosure that conceals the souls darkest secrets. It also depends upon Tonys willingness to navigate the labyrinth of love and disappointment lodged in his own soul. At once a psychological study of how trauma is healed; a heros journey through the underworld of abuse betrayal and shattered faith; and a theological thriller in search of a credible and sustaining Sacred in the midst of unspeakable suffering The God of Shattered Glass reveals that stories do indeed heal and that the way to God is not up but down. Endorsements: This novel is a breath-taking soul-searing and truth-telling experience. When you allow Frank Rogers to take you into the lives of child psychologist Tony Backman and the boy Carey Foster--after a few sentences you will be in Rogers masterful grip--then you will enter straight into the depths of the human condition . . . I urge all serious readers to put on a diving mask and plunge into The God of Shattered Glass. This is a story that dares those who seek and teach truth to look into its mirror. --Carol Lakey Hess author of Caretakers of our Common House: Womens Development in Communities of Faith Would that more of us theologians could write in this vein . . . It is one thing to assert that God is utterly compassionate toward every creature and calls us to a like compassion. It is quite another to draw us through the depths of hell and hatred to a realization of that compassion even for ourselves. Frank Rogers novel existentially deconstructs the cosmic patriarchy that so distorts the thinking of believers and unbelievers alike--and all the false expectations it has conjured up. --John B. Cobb Jr. author of For the Common Good and Christ in a Pluralistic Age As somebody who has spent over thirty years working with troubled youth I found Frank Rogers The God of Shattered Glass a revelation. He not only knows the boys in residential homes he knows the world that created them. Equally important his narrator Tony a psychologist who tries to save a boy who has been abused comes alive as a passionate person who is willing to dine with demons and reveal his hopes and fears. This book illuminates a much neglected corner of our world and shows how it is connected to the rest of us. --Daniel Judah Sklar playwright and author of Playmaking: Children Writing and Performing Their Own Plays About the Contributor(s): Frank Rogers is Professor of Spiritual Formation and Narrative Pedagogy at the Claremont School of Theology. As a narrative educator and spiritual director he works with marginalized young people and adult survivors of childhood abuse using story as a means of personal healing and social empowerment. Their stories and his inform this novel. Frank lives in Southern California where he runs in the foothills and hikes in the mountains. This is his first novel and the firs