Mr. Ives' Christmas

by Oscar Hijuelos

Genres: Literary Fiction

Synopsis

Hailed “the deepest and the best” of Pulitzer-Prize winning author Oscar Hijuelos’s novels, this acclaimed national bestseller examines faith lost and regained after a businessman’s son violently dies at Christmas (New York TimesBook Review).

In 1960s New York, Edward Ives is a picture of the American dream. Adopted as a child by a widowed print shop manager, who helped him cultivate a love of drawing, he now has a successful career as an illustrator in advertising, a beautiful home with his wife and muse, Annie, and two loving children. But this idyllic life is brutally wrenched away when Ives’s 17-year-old son, Robert—who has just decided to commit his life to the priesthood—is murdered by another teenage boy just before Christmas, a crime of opportunity that proves to be as random as it is senseless.

Consumed by grief, Ives withdraws from the world. Grappling with a loss of faith—a force that has guided him steadfastly since childhood—he starts to question every aspect of human existence, contemplating what it really means to live an emotionally and spiritually fulfilling life. This mourning consumes him—until he takes on the monumental task of working through his suffering, and ultimately faces his son's killer.

Mr. Ives' Christmas is a tender, passionate story of a man working to rediscover what it means to love, forgive, and live after unspeakable tragedy. It is another tremendous achievement from one of America’s most talented writers.

Includes a Reading Group Guide.

Release date: January 1, 1995

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Print pages: 368