My Almost Certainly Real Imaginary Jesus

(Paperback)

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Description

Kelly Barth, like many American kids, went to Sunday school, sang songs about Zaccheas, and was tucked in with bedtime prayers. A typical Christian kid, that is, until she developed a searingly deep crush on another little girl playing afterhours in church, and more importantly, until Jesus--a tiny, imaginary Jesus, one that stays "safely tucked be

Reviews

"My Almost Certainly Real Imaginary Jesus is a beautiful memoir of a young Christian woman's determined but hopeless battle with her sexuality, and Barth's narration is wise, honest, and frequently hilarious. Her struggle and triumph, so engagingly rendered, should resonate with anyone who has taken the long way to thoughtful self-reliance."
--Laura Moriarty

"Kelly Barth's heartfelt, funny, and wrenching book is testimony to Jesus' steadfast love. Her faith, tested and tried, looks beyond the failings of religion to claim that love for all."
--Sara Miles, author of Take This Bread and Jesus Freak

"Funny. Poignant. Heartbreaking. Barth takes us through a world of religious dogma that can be harsh and frightening and emerges into a Christian spirituality we recognize--one of love and tolerance and wisdom. Her nuanced story will be exotic to those of us who have never personally experienced evangelical religion, even as its central humanity remains deeply familiar."--Sharman Apt Russell, Standing in the Light: My Life as a Pantheist

Author Bio

Kelly Barth was a fiction fellow in the University of Montana's creative writing program and has received fellowships from the Missouri Arts Council and the Kansas Arts Commission. Her work has been published in anthologies and literary journals, most recently Coal City Review and Muse & Stone. She lives in a very small house with her partner Lisa Grossman in Lawrence, Kansas. My Almost Certainly Real Imaginary Jesus is her first book.