The Distance Between Us

Married in 1996. Three children. A faith they built their lives on. And six months after their divorce, Marcus and Naomi Hale sit down to dinner to ask the question neither could answer while their marriage was coming apart: How did we get here?

Told in alternating voices, The Distance Between Us moves between that single, honest evening and the years that led to it: a soldier's deployment, letters that went unread, prayers whispered behind closed doors, and a marriage that slowly went quiet. Marcus believed love meant protecting his family. Naomi needed to be truly seen. Neither was wrong, and both were lonely.

Woven throughout are journal entries written during the marriage itself, raw words of hope, doubt, and faith that reveal what each of them could not say out loud.

This is not a story of heroes and villains. It is two people telling the truth as they lived it, and what remains when love is real but the distance between two people has grown too wide to cross.

For anyone who has loved someone and struggled to reach them, this is a tender, unflinching novel about marriage, faith, family, grief, and the courage of an honest conversation.

Includes discussion questions and a conversation with the author, ideal for book clubs and couples.