Our Lady of the Lost and Found

One Monday morning in April, a middle-aged woman writer walks into her living room to water the plants & finds a woman standing beside the potted fig tree. Dressed in a navy blue trench coat & white Nikes, the woman introduces herself as "Mary. Mother of God.... You know. Mary." Instead of a golden robe or a crown, she arrives bearing a suitcase, looking for a little R&R. Weary after two thousand years of adoration & petition, she asked to stay for lunch & she stays for a week. As the story of their visit unfolds, so does the story of Mary--one of the most complex & powerful female figures of our time--& her changing image in culture, art, history, as well as the thousands of record sightings that have placed her everywhere from a privet hedge to the dented bumper of a Camaro. As this everywoman & Mary become friends, their conversations, by turns profound & absurd, touch upon Mary's significance & enduring relevance. Told with humor & grace, Our Lady of the Lost & Found is an absorbing tour through Mary's history & a thoughtful meditation on spirituality, our need for faith & our desire to believe in something larger than ourselves. Its release will inspire some soul-searching next May--which, by ancient tradition, is Mary's month.Schoemperlen, Diane is the author of 'Our Lady of the Lost and Found' with ISBN 9780670899777 and ISBN 0670899771.