Our lady of the lost and found

the long version

On an otherwise typical Monday morning, a middle-aged writer enters her living room and finds a woman standing by her fig tree. The woman is wearing a blue trench coat, white sneakers, and a white shawl over her hair. She is holding a purse and a suitcase. She is the Virgin Mary-and after 2000 years of petition, adoration, and traveling, she's in need of a little R&R. Invited in for lunch, Mary decides to stay for one week, during which an unlikely friendship develops. As our narrator learns the remarkable history of one of the most influential and complex women of all time, she is moved to examine life's big questions and her own capacity for faith. Witty and gently ironic, this inventive novel is an inspiration to believers and nonbelievers alike.