A vicar is disbelieving when two teenagers in his parish claim to have been given a message by the archangel Gabriel, but gradually changes his mind and decides he must do something about it.
Two men are involved in a car crash: Brad dies, and Danny—who can't stand the thought of living without him—kills himself, convinced that with so little time having elapsed between their deaths, he'll be able to catch up to Brad on his way to Judgment. The novel becomes a modern Pilgrim's Progress, detailing the tests inseparable from a journey through purgatory.
The story of a father and son—and is it true, as Wordsworth claimed, that "the child is father of the man" or can one's character actually change as one grows older?
A man who married young, and so never had the chance to sow his wild oats, suddenly breaks out when in his mid-thirties—and becomes convinced he has stumbled on the secret of happiness.
A love story between men—without being, basically, a novel about gay issues; more about appreciating what you have while you have it, and ultimately learning what matters to you in life.
Two women looking back over fifty years: one full of regret, the other not admitting to mistakes and continuing to be fiercely positive. Which approach, in the end, is likely to prove more satisfying—both for Daisy herself and for those who live around her?