Yellow Butterflies
Maryanne J. Kane, PhD
“At school, I learned that cruelty and kindness can’t coexist without one devouring the other.”
Theresa O’Mara’s precocious first-day observation proved a grim foreshadowing. Cruelty and kindness were the bookends of her life in the Irish countryside of the 1920s – and beyond.
Though her mother died in childbirth and her father descended into heartbreak and madness, she was sheltered by her brothers’ unwavering love. Bullying at school was tempered by friendship and a passion for learning fanned by the nuns who taught her. But an equally horrifying accident and flight to America to avoid punishment left Theresa without a lifeline of hope – or faith.
Yellow Butterflies follows Theresa from innocent child in Ireland to reluctant pre-postulant and disillusioned nun hiding in an American convent – with cruelty and kindness fighting to consume themselves - and her. Will Theresa’s journey into the darkness of life – and her own soul – end in tragedy or redemption?
The answer is a tale of embracing guilt to find acceptance – and escaping self-hate to reclaim self-love.
Proceeds from the sale of Yellow Butterflies go to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
IndieReader GivesYellow Butterflies4.5 Stars
“Author Maryanne J. Kane combines humor with the right amount of pathos inYELLOW BUTTERFLIES, a moving meditation on faith, family, and redemption.”