The reader is taken into a week in the life of Cohen Marah. The second paragraph in the book is a heavy hook which grabs at you and won't let go. "He stares down at the body again, and sadness keeps him leaning to one side. It’s the physical weight of emotion and that weight is not centered inside of him but skewed, imbalanced." But Smucker's style causes that week to fly quickly away. Chapters are short. They end leaving just enough left unsaid that you must turn the page and read the next chapter. Sentences are never so long you get lost. You always know you're being lead to more in the story. It keeps you reading.This is a story about grief and where faith collides with deep, painful, shameful secrets. It is about how the sacrament of confession scratches at those secrets and ultimately relieves them even if it takes time. It is about how we sin and are sinned against. This novel is about how the eyes of Jesus can peer into our eyes and bestow the grace to admit our failings.