It was a bet. A simple bet. No one was supposed to die.
In 1993, American companies were cutting jobs at a rate of two-thousand a day. That spring, Ann McKenzie found herself down on her knees praying to God to keep the job she had now. It was the last time she'd get down on her knees to pray for anything.
A MATTER OF GRACE dares to expose the ugly side of the American economy. It lifts up the rock and looks directly at the harsh economic realities where continued corporate downsizing has broken all unwritten social laws and the impact has left suvivors angry, cynical, and scared.
The story hinges on a bet. A deal is made between Joanne Lugano, the advertising sales director at a small cable television network and her assistant, Ann McKenzie. But the rippling effects of this bet envelop the lives of everyone in the office and beyond, as it entraps Joy, a homeless woman on the streets of Manhattan, who becomes their unwitting victim in this cat-and-mouse game of life and death.
Through the lives of these three women A Matter of Grace questions the very nature of the role of God and man in a just universe. "There but for the grace of God go I" reverberates throughout the novel, as a blessing and a curse. Ultimately asking, what is God's grace and does it matter in a society seemingly ruled by greed and arrogance? Or is this all just a game we play with peoples lives in the balance and our souls the price of admission?
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