After decades of sleeping around, working as a waitress, and suffering booze-induced blackouts, Heather King settled into sobriety, marriage, and a financially lucrative but unfulfilling career in a Beverly Hills law firm. As someone who had reached middle age "never believing in much of anything," she found herself in the last place she thought she'd end up: the Catholic church.

Redeemed describes this journey: Her "holy" phase, during which she thought that walking around in rags put her in solidarity with the poor instead of being the sign of a pathological hoarder. The marriage during which she found herself holed up on the couch reading Hermits of the World and Convents of Southern France, then wondering why she and her husband weren't having sex. The breast cancer that brought her face-to-face with our health care system, her mortality, and the Virgin Mary. The death of her father, the devastation of divorce, the torment of insecurities and obsessions.

This is an unforgettable, fervent, darkly funny tale of a stumbling, ongoing conversion by a Catholic who goes to Mass every Sunday, attends confession, fasts during Lent--and is about as far from saint-like as could be imagined. Redeemed vibrates with a refreshing sense of humor, mesmerizing voice, and piercing honesty.

Acclaim for Heather King and Redeemed:

"This is really the story of two callings -- to faith and to a life's work... riveting depiction of a

lost soul found."

--- Kirkus Reviews

"King's faith sees beyond the pain: 'heaven is not some other world, but shot all through the broken world where we already live.'"

-- Publishers Weekly

"A story with depth, rare balance, humor, and with a near-perfect eye for what is important, true to the perception that `sin, degradation, and scandal aren't that interesting,' but `conversion is.'" A conversion story along the lines of St. Augustine's classic. YouÕll learn how grace works."

--- Ron Rolheiser, author of The Holy Longing and The Restless Heart

"A must-read for anyone on the spiritual journey that defines the essence of learning to live life on life's terms, while there's still time."

-- William Cope Moyers, author of Broken

"I'm hugely grateful for this `misfit,' and for her words, which I keep copying down into

my own misfit notebook. In hard times, Heather King is one of the people of hope."

 -- Jean Valentine, National Book Award-winning author of Door in the Mountain