The Atonement Child

Dynah Carey has her whole life mapped out: a strong faith, a loving family, a place at a Christian college, and an engagement to a devout young man. Then a violent assault leaves her pregnant, and everything she believed about herself and the people around her is thrown into doubt. As she wrestles with the most wrenching decision of her life — whether to end or to carry the pregnancy — the support she counted on begins to fall away.

Her anti-abortion fiancé quietly changes his mind; her college threatens expulsion unless the pregnancy "disappears"; and at home, Dynah's crisis forces long-buried secrets into the open, as both her mother and grandmother confront abortions in their own pasts. What emerges is the story of three generations of women bound by the same impossible question.

A frank, compassionate work of Christian fiction, The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers approaches one of the most divisive subjects of its day through grief, faith, and the search for grace.