Thin Places: A Memoir by Mary E. DeMuth

“I, myself, am a thin place.” starts Mary Demuth’s memoir. The story begins with Mary as the young, scrawny little girl you see on the book cover but a thin place is more, much more, than a physical description.

Mary explains,

“The Celts define a thin place as a place where heaven and the physical world collide, one of those serendipitous territories where eternity and the mundane meet … Thin places are snatches of time, moments really, when we sense God intersecting our world in tangible, unmistakable ways. They are aha moments, beautiful realizations, when the Son of God bursts through the hazy fog of our monotony and shines on us afresh. He has come near to my life. I will tell you how.”

The telling is heart-wrenching.

Her Life

Throughout Mary’s kindergarten year two older boys in the neighborhood raped her repeatedly. The boys threatened to kill her and her parents if she told. Thin Places chronicles a childhood filled with neglect, an unsafe home, parents with addictions, multiple divorces, death, fear and suicidal thoughts.

As a teenager Mary enters into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The journey that follows reveals spiritual healing that often transcends our earthly understanding. You travel the path of her thin places hoping for what seems like the impossible; some semblance of a normal, healed life.

Her Memoir

The memoir reads like a novel. Mary’s powerful writing begets that kind of response. Written in the first person present tense, the book effortlessly transports you into Mary’s life as a little girl, teenager and adult; weaving a tapestry of a life touched by immeasurable pain and remarkable healing.

The thread that ties her experiences together is the thin places where she sees, although often in retrospect, the hand of God woven through her life. Ultimately it is a story of resilience, the power of faith and the transforming power of love and forgiveness that will shine light on your own thin places.

Her Book

Although I received an advance copy of Thin Places: A Memoir from the publisher Zondervan the book is currently available on Amazon Thin Places: A Memoir Mary E. DeMuth or www.marydemuth.com

Her Interview

Please visit the Books column for in a two part interview with Mary starting tomorrow. You’ll have the opportunity to read more about Mary, the motivation behind writing her memoir and what she hopes people will take away from her story.