A Theory of Expanded Love is a coming-of-age story featuring an unflinching, gullible skeptic, trapped in her enormous Catholic family in 1963. On the verge of adolescence, Annie Shea is young enough to want a doll for Christmas, yet old enough to be responsible for the care and feeding of five younger brothers and sisters. Desperate for attention in the rambling, haphazard mess of a home where privacy is non-existent and conformity the rule, Annie sees her chance for glory when the pope dies and a family friend is on the short list to be elected the first American pope. So begins a hilarious campaign of lies-by-association with the Cardinal to elevate her tribe to the holiest of holy rollers in her parish.
But when Annie discovers a closely-held family secret and a wedding photograph of her mother next to a soldier who is not her father; when 'The Hands’ visit her at night, as her sister faces a scandal, Annie finds that her parents will do almost anything to uphold their Catholic reputation and keep their secrets safe. Questioning all she has believed and torn between her own gut instinct and years of Catholic guilt, Annie runs away from home to wrest salvation from the tragic sequence of events set in motion by her parents’ betrayal, while remaining loyal to herself – and her own quirky, crystal clear logic.
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Caitlin Hicks is the author of the 2015 novel A Theory of Expanded Love, which won many awards, including Indie FAB Bronze (now Foreword Indies) and i Tunes for 'Best New Fiction.’ In 2022, the novel won listing on Book Riot’s list of 100 must-read books about Women and Religion alongside celebrated writers Alice Walker, Barbara Kingsolver, Toni Morrison, Arundhati Roy, Margaret Atwood, Ann Patchett, Alice Hoffman and more. The audiobook of A Theory of Expanded Love won NYC BIG BOOK AWARD as a Distinguished Favorite in 2022.Hicks is also an international playwright and acclaimed performer. Her theatrical writing has been performed in Best Women’s Stage Monologues (New York), She Speaks (Playwrights Canada Press), and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s national radio. A screen adaptation of Hicks’s internationally toured play Singing the Bones debuted as a feature film at Montreal World Film Festival (2001) and screened around the world. Hicks’s writing has been published in Vancouver Sun, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Fiddlehead, and other publications. Her podcast SOME KINDA WOMAN, Stories of Us, captures women’s voices at small and profound moments in their lives. Learn more at Caitlin Hicks.com.