The Road to Grace [Paperback]

The third novel in theNew York Timesbestselling series about an advertising executive who loses everything and embarks on a walk across America: “definitely a journey worth taking” (Booklist).

Reeling from the sudden loss of his wife, his home, and his business, Alan Christoffersen, a once-successful advertising executive, left behind everything he knew and set off on an extraordinary cross-country journey. As he treks the nearly 1,000 miles between South Dakota and St. Louis on foot, it’s the people he meets along the way who give the journey its true meaning: a mysterious woman who follows Alan for nearly a hundred miles, the ghost hunter searching graveyards for his wife, and the elderly Polish man who gives Alan a ride and shares a story that Alan will never forget.

Full of hard-won wisdom and truth, this is a moving stand-alone story as well as the continuation of the unforgettable bestselling Walk series.The Road to Graceis a compelling and inspiring novel about hope, healing, grace, and the meaning of life.PROLOGUE
Note
The sun will rise again. The only uncertainty is whether or not we will rise to greet it.

Alan Christoffersen’s diary

Several months after I was mugged, stabbed, and left unconscious along the shoulder of Washington’s Highway 2, a friend asked me what being stabbed felt like. I told her it hurt.

Really, how do you describe pain? Sometimes doctors ask us to rate our pain on a scale from one to ten, as if that number had some reliable meaning. In my opinion there needs to be a more objective rating system, something comparative; like, would you trade what you’re feeling for a root canal or maybe half a childbirth?

And with what would we compare emotional pain—physical pain? Arguably, emotional pain is the greater of the two evils. Sometimes people will inflict physical pain on themselves to dull their emotilƒ$