{"product_id":"the-gates-ajar","title":"The Gates Ajar","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat comfort is left when the heaven you are promised feels as cold as the loss you bear?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn Elizabeth Stuart Phelps’s The Gates Ajar, Mary Cabot grieves for her brother Royal, a soldier lost in the Civil War. In her New England home, the religion she knows offers little comfort. She tells her story in an intimate, diary-like voice, bringing you close to her anger, silence and unanswered questions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen Aunt Winifred Forceythe arrives. A widow herself, she imagines heaven as a familiar home where people keep their memories and loves. Her hope meets resistance from the town’s stern religious voices, including Dr. Bland and Deacon Quirk. Through their disagreements, the novel asks what words can truly help someone live with loss.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eWhat you'll discover\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eA voice close to grief\u003c\/strong\u003e – Mary’s plain, private account gives room to feelings that polite comfort cannot easily reach.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAn aunt who understands\u003c\/strong\u003e – Winifred brings her own experience of loss into gentle conversations with her grieving niece.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHeaven as a home\u003c\/strong\u003e – Explore Winifred’s belief in an afterlife that preserves familiar natures, memories and human love.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFaith under quiet challenge\u003c\/strong\u003e – Meet religious authorities whose stern answers reveal the distance between accepted teaching and personal need.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eA town seeking comfort\u003c\/strong\u003e – Enter a New England community where ordinary people struggle to answer sorrow with care.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003ePerfect for readers of quiet, thoughtful fiction, those curious about American religious life in the 1800s, and anyone seeking a gentle companion in grief.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOpen the first page now, and sit beside Mary as she searches for comfort that can reach her.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Library of Alexandria Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":59534779744604,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1027\/9442\/8764\/files\/12560_en_ebook-front_c04.jpg?v=1792175216","url":"https:\/\/libraryofalexandria.com\/products\/the-gates-ajar","provider":"The Library of Alexandria","version":"1.0","type":"link"}