Distressed by the turmoil and media frenzy, Colin, now remarried, blames Mariah and sues for custody. Television personality Ian Fletcher, who makes a living debunking religion, arrives to do a feature. As the faithful, the ailing, and the curious gather outside Faith and Mariah’s house, stigmata appear on the girl’s wrists and various religious representatives question her credibility. Faith quotes scriptures she’s never been taught, claims she is speaking to God, miraculously resurrects her grandmother Millie (declared dead after a heart attack), and cures a child with AIDS. The last time Colin was unfaithful, Mariah became suicidally depressed and was hospitalized until shortly before Faith’s birth this time, after a speedy divorce, she tries to adjust to being on her own, but soon her daughter begins behaving oddly.

When Mariah comes home early one afternoon with seven-year-old daughter Faith and surprises husband Colin in bed with another woman, her carefully constructed world threatens to fall apart. Picoult (The Pact, 1998, etc.) sets her tale in a small New Hampshire town during the last months of 1999 and intelligently addresses, without ever becoming strident or hysterical, such charged topics as mental illness and the existence of God. A sweetly affirmative portrait of mother-daughter love that explores big questions while also providing a riveting narrative of a custody battle.

Keeping the faith