Book summary

Ian Bedloe is a 17-year-old who comes from a lower-middle-class background in Baltimore. He believes he caused the suicide of his brother Dan because of a conversation they had shortly before Dan's death. Dan's wife also dies soon after her husband, and Ian, feeling intense guilt, atones by caring for their three orphaned children. On the advice of a local minister, he quits college, becomes a carpenter, maintains his celibacy, and works his way toward expiation. His reward for such service is long in coming, and arrives in a wholly unexpected form.

Media reviews

"'Saint Maybe' is vintage Tyler, delicately stamped, like a watermark, with her intimate and unmistakable voice.... An arresting novel."