title: Cross a Dark Bridge: A Novel
author:  Deborah Churchman 
description: The scarring power of cruelty proves more fascinating--and less predictable--than the healing power of love in Churchman's first novel, a bittersweet tale of family dysfunction and marital redemption. Nathan Deeters, 36, is a Maryland grocery-store owner resigned to a boring existence when his life is invaded by the Grasons, a madcap brood that combines traits of both the Addams family and the Simpsons. Mama Sally is addicted to junk food and fantasies of winning the lottery. Son Freddy is a surly juvenile delinquent. Daughter Missy believes that she's a character in a soap opera and is scripting her family's life. And Missy's shy twin, Gilead, harbors the dark family secret that is key to understanding the family's eccentricities. Churchman limns the Grasons' quirky personalities with care and affection through alternating first-person narratives that hide as much as they divulge about the family's past, setting up a tense climax. But the novel belongs to Nathan and Gilead, who marry and eventually find the strength in one another to exorcise their emotional demons, dissipating the narrative's undercurrent of mystery and foreboding into an uplifting promise of personal redemption. The Grasons and their invigorating peculiarities are bound to lodge more firmly in readers' minds than the plot that ultimately disarms them.
zlib_text: Praise from Readers of
  
  The Bridge
  
  ![](images/00001.jpg)
  
  “The Bridge is a reminder that all things aren’t as they seem. That things
  really do work together for good. That God is in control even when we can’t
  see it. Karen’s books make you laugh, cry, and leave you wanting more! Her
  characters are so real you feel like you know them and want to be friends with
  them. Once I read the first page of The Bridge, I couldn’t put it down. I read
  the entire book in one day!”
  
  —Hellen (Annette) H.
  
  “Karen Kingsbury once again uses her beautiful talent to illustrate God’s
  awesome love and grace for us! Each new story speaks to so many hearts across
  the world. Karen’s gift is certainly a loving legacy that I share with
  others!”
  
  —Cyndi A.
  
  “Gripping from the beginning, The Bridge is an amazing story where we learn
  even in tragedy or loss that God is the God of second chances, and we should
  learn to treasure the miracles He sends our way.”
  
  —Chris V.
  
  “Karen Kingsbury’s newest book, The Bridge, wi