"In Brooklyn, New York, some forty years ago, Jack Standini's wife disappeared, "lost like a glove or a sock or a dream, missing." Since then, he has devoted his life to a craft, and a secret. A shoemaker by day, a carver of exquisite wooden angels by night, Jack accepts his loneliness - until Lucille arrives, with a pair of wrecked shoes, a cherubic face, and a serious hankering for a more exciting life." "A modern fairy tale, The Angel Carver is storytelling at its most swift and poignant. It tells what happens to a man when his reality is rearranged by fate, abruptly and completely. Without warning, Jack finds he has lost the one person he counted on having in his life, while later, he finds himself involved with people he never dreamed he would know." "Lucille's morbid aspiration to become Marilyn Monroe, Buddy's cruel, erotic obsession with Lucille, and Jack's magnificent but vulnerable simplicity all intersect in this startling morality tale. The Angel Carver addresses - with compassion, acuity, and humor - the timeless themes of greed, vanity, fidelity, nostalgia, and the true nature of beauty. An illuminating allegory for the nineties, the book moves graciously through a prism of human emotions and fates. Inner beauty become an outward sham. A young woman's delusions abet her self-destruction. An old man's quiet faith becomes a danger to him. Yet for all the darkness of human nature revealed here, redemption remains possible for the innocent of heart. Jack's neighbor, Leopoldine, island-born and city-wise, reminds us that good can be shorn from evil and that guardian angels do exist, in the guise of friends and lovers." "The Angel Carver is a novel of remarkable finesse. It is the sheer force of the author's voice that keeps the reader mesmerized. Thomas conveys complex ideas in a deceptively simple style and conjures up an emotional chord that resonates in us long after the last page."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved