Publication
Coffee House Press, c2020.
Status
Available
Description
Fiction. Literature. HTML: A young interfaith chaplain is joined on her hospital rounds one night by an unusual companion: a rough-and-tumble dog who may or may not be a ghost. As she tends to the souls of her patients�??young and old, living last moments or navigating fundamentally altered lives�??their stories provide unexpected healing for her own heartbreak. Balancing wonder and mystery with pragmatism and humor, Ellen Cooney (A Mountaintop School for Dogs and Other Second Chances) returns to Coffee House Press with a generous, intelligent novel that grants the most challenging moments of the human experience a shimmer of light and magical possibility
Media reviews
“One Night Two Souls Went Walking” is Ellen Cooney’s 10th novel and it’s filled with characters who are rich with stories and eager to tell them.... “One Night Two Souls Went Walking” builds up to a particularly busy night at the medical center after a building suddenly collapses
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because of heavy snow. The chaos introduces new stress to everyone but also, as the book’s title suggests, causes a supernatural occurrence during which our chaplain has an out-of-body experience, accompanied, possibly, by the soul of a recently deceased hospital therapy dog named Bobo. Cooney has no trouble turning this tall tale of a flying chaplain into a wonderful and memorable novel that lingers long and deep in the mind of readers, making us reconsider our concepts of faith, kindness, and what exactly a soul is, anyway. Show Less
Many novels aim for the soul or search for the meaning of life, but Ellen Cooney’s poetic 10th novel gets to the heart of the matter with more informal candor and wit than most.... One Night Two Souls Went Walking is a stroll and a meander, following the errant trail of the chaplain’s
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questions: What is a soul? What is holy?... Cooney’s novel expands the concept of what’s possible, imagining hope where there is none and pointing always toward the light. Show Less
A hospital chaplain working the night shift recalls encounters with patients, coworkers, and a therapy dog named Bobo Boy in Cooney’s illuminating latest (after The Mountaintop School for Dogs and Other Second Chances).... Brief, vivid portraits of Bobo Boy, doctors, nurses, patients and the
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chaplain herself form a memorable collage of souls in need. Cooney’s uplifting novel captures extraordinary moments of sadness, pain, and grace, as one woman brings light to life’s darkest moments. Show Less
Cooney’s brief but compelling novel—in which an unnamed chaplain takes readers on her rounds during one night at a large Northeastern hospital—explores issues like mortality, spiritual survival, and human connection.... Cooney does a remarkable job structuring a novel of vignettes and stories
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within stories into a cohesive whole. Equally remarkable is her portrait of the chaplain as a personification of the potential for human goodness. Though introspective, the narrator is never self-absorbed. Her voice, funny and direct, keeps sentimentality at bay. The perfect novel to combat pandemic angst. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member tymfos
This was an impulse buy for our library -- I read a review somewhere, not here -- and an impulse read for me after a friend read it.
The story is told from the POV of a hospital chaplain, an Episcopal priest who is quite likeable and not at all dogmatic. She is a dog lover. She misses the deceased
We walk with her through a night shift at the hospital, encountering many and varied people and situations, and sharing her thoughts on life during the quiet times.
She is pondering what to do about a long-distance relationship with a former lover who is overseas studying near-death, out-of-body experiences with a neurologist, when she encounters a man who claimed to have had one -- floating through the hospital when something went wrong during a surgery. She approaches the claim with skepticism.
This is a delightful, thoughtful book that I enjoyed very much.
The story is told from the POV of a hospital chaplain, an Episcopal priest who is quite likeable and not at all dogmatic. She is a dog lover. She misses the deceased
Show More
hospital therapy dog, and even believes she sees his spirit by the tree where his ashes were buried. And she makes friends with the new therapy dog. By night's end, they will share an adventure!We walk with her through a night shift at the hospital, encountering many and varied people and situations, and sharing her thoughts on life during the quiet times.
She is pondering what to do about a long-distance relationship with a former lover who is overseas studying near-death, out-of-body experiences with a neurologist, when she encounters a man who claimed to have had one -- floating through the hospital when something went wrong during a surgery. She approaches the claim with skepticism.
This is a delightful, thoughtful book that I enjoyed very much.
Show Less
LibraryThing member MarthaJeanne
I found this a very difficult read while it was still pretending to be a fairly normal novel. But flying through the air invisibly with a dog goes past what I can stomach. I read over two thirds, but this is too much.
Language
Original language
English
ISBN
9781566895972