Forgiveness 4 You

Bauer (The Forever Marriage) has written a satirical novel with serious undertones about guilt, redemption, faith, secularism, consumerism…and probably a few other things as well. Plagued by recurrent erections, former priest Gabriel McKenna is working in a bookstore when advertising executive Madeline Murray wanders in and finds herself confessing to him. This sparks in her innovative mind an idea that this is just what the world needs—forgiveness without religion, guaranteed absolution from guilt and shame (for a price). The narrative is structured in wildly different voices—the scenes from Father Gabe's perspective are thoughtful and ruminative, while the sections detailing the company start-up are told via email excerpts and urgent memos between a group of ego-driven advertisers getting their feet wet in the business of entrepreneurship (these last parts are quite funny, at times).