Your brand-new novel, Send Down the Rain, also sounds fascinating. Would you tell us a bit about this story?
A 61-year-old Vietnam veteran has been living in hiding for the last 20 years. Circumstances force him to return to his childhood home and wrestle with whether to reveal a secret he has kept for 45 years. Problem is, if he tells it, somebody dies. And if he doesn’t tell it, somebody dies. It’s a beautiful story. I don’t think I’ve ever written anything better.
One of the driving forces in Send Down the Rain is the consequences of keeping—or sharing—secrets. What inspired this story?
When I wrote my first New York Times bestseller, I was 10 years married and telling my wife I loved her, but a part of me was still questioning what that actually meant or looked like in practice.
I wanted to go deeper into the “big” questions than ever done before, with Send Down the Rain. I wanted to speak to anyone who has ever asked themselves: what does it mean–and what level of sacrifice does it take–to really, truly love someone forever?
What do you hope readers come away with after reading Send Down the Rain?
I hope readers better understand the relationship between sacrifice and love.
What else is coming up that you’re excited about?
For the last decade or more, I’ve taught a Bible study to a bunch of broken sinners like me. Men who have become my brothers. We “do life” together. During that time, I’ve taught much on the life of Jesus. Some of those “teachings” were later turned into blog posts. Often, those posts receive more traffic than my fiction.
With that in mind, I’m writing a nonfiction book titled What Kind of King—Would Do Such a Thing? It will be released in early 2019. It’s my take—as a storyteller—on some of the events in Jesus’ life, what He’s revealed to me through them, and how they change me and us. I’ve never seen anything like it on the shelf.
Visit Charles Martin’s author page here: https://www.familyfiction.com/authors/charles-martin
Send Down the Rain
Charles Martin
Thomas Nelson
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Mountain Between Us comes a new, spellbinding story of buried secrets, lost love, and the promise of second chances.
Allie is still recovering from the loss of her family’s beloved waterfront restaurant on Florida’s Gulf Coast when she loses her second husband to a terrifying highway accident. Devastated and losing hope, she shudders to contemplate the future—until a cherished person from her past returns.
Joseph has been adrift for many years, wounded in both body and spirit and unable to come to terms with the trauma of his Vietnam War experiences. Just as he resolves to abandon his search for peace and live alone at a remote cabin in the Carolina mountains, he discovers a mother and her two small children lost in the forest. A man of character and strength, he instinctively steps in to help them get back to their home in Florida. There he will return to his own hometown—and witness the accident that launches a bittersweet reunion with his childhood sweetheart, Allie.
When Joseph offers to help Allie rebuild her restaurant, it seems the flame may reignite—until a 45-year-old secret from the past begins to emerge, threatening to destroy all hope for their second chance at love.
In Send Down the Rain, Charles Martin proves himself to be a storyteller of great wisdom and compassion who bears witness to the dreams we cherish, the struggles we face, and the courage we must summon when life seems to threaten what we hold most dear.