Toward That Which is Beautiful
A Novel

This novel is beautiful on so many levels. First, I mean look at the cover--not that I judge a book by its cover (oh, yes I do). Second, Wernicke's evocative descriptions of Peru and Bolivia capture such varying landscapes and do so by capturing all the senses and explaining the impact of the landsc......more

Set in the highlands of Peru, Toward That Which Is Beautiful is a lovely coming-of-age novel that follows young Sister Mary Katherine (Kate) on a quest to find the woman she is meant to be. I did not see hers as a crisis of faith but rather that of identity. Her faith itself is unwavering. Whether s......more

An unexpectedly beautiful story of Sister Mary Katherine (Kate) and her world both before and during her time as a nun in a Catholic world of missionary work. The descriptions of Peru and Bolivia are breathtaking and paint a picture of both scarcity and abundance. I connected to her spiritual growth......more

Marian O’Shea Wernicke’s debut novel, "Toward That Which Is Beautiful," is a stunning journey of trust, suspense, and agape love. The story is set in the highlands of Peru in the summer of 1964. Kate leaves her Catholic education, middle-class suburbia life, joins the Dominican Order, and finds herse......more

This is a wonderful story on a couple levels. We see what life was like for nuns in the 1950s and '60s, when most girls could imagine careers only as nuns, teachers or secretaries. And as Wernicke, a former nun herself, notes, there was was plenty of sexism inside the Church, too. Nuns did all the gr......more