--- title: Review: Saints for All Occasions by J. Courtney Sullivan description: The Raffertys love one another, but their secrets turn them into strangers. Misunderstandings ricochet through the family's generations canonical: https://time.com/4775446/saints-for-all-occasions-review/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-11T10:35:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:52:20.649Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Review: Everyday Saints in J. Courtney Sullivan's New Novel og:description: 'Saints for All Occasions' follows two sisters who come to the U.S. from Ireland og:url: https://time.com/4775446/saints-for-all-occasions-review/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee5ee3e60ac7d098/6988cce786f68e06916e4a46/saints.jpg?branch=production&width=1120&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1120 og:image:height: 630 og:image:alt: saints og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Review: Everyday Saints in J. Courtney Sullivan's New Novel twitter:description: 'Saints for All Occasions' follows two sisters who come to the U.S. from Ireland twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee5ee3e60ac7d098/6988cce786f68e06916e4a46/saints.jpg?branch=production&width=1120&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Review: Everyday Saints in J. Courtney Sullivan's New Novel > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=bc6b3740-c62d-4b8e-8b6a-03089cf00760&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley May 11, 2017 10:35 AM UTC  Knopf by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley May 11, 2017 10:35 AM UTC “Live long enough, and life teaches you that God is not your lucky rabbit foot.” So says Nora Rafferty in [J. Courtney Sullivan’s](http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2101344%5F2101086%5F2101114,00.html) new novel, [_Saints for All Occasions_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307959570/?tag=timecom-20). She should know: Nora and her sister Theresa emigrate from [Ireland](http://time.com/4097071/brooklyn-irish-immigrants-history/) to the U.S. in the 1950s, recalling [Colm Tóibín’s](http://time.com/4638127/barack-obama-book-list/) 2009 best seller, [_Brooklyn_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1501106473/?tag=timecom-20). When Theresa gets pregnant, Nora quickly gets married and persuades her husband to raise the baby boy as their own. Fifty years later, their son’s true parentage remains a secret to almost everyone in the growing Rafferty family. By then, plenty more secrets have accumulated. The Raffertys love one another, but their secrets turn them into strangers. Misunderstandings ricochet through the family’s generations like so much shrapnel. Sullivan lets readers in on these secrets even as most of her characters stay in the dark, elevating the novel above the average family drama. With tenderness and a knack for depicting Irish grandmothers that anybody who has one will appreciate, Sullivan celebrates ordinary people doing their best to live saintly lives. They may fail, but they keep trying. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4775446/saints-for-all-occasions-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4775446/saints-for-all-occasions-review/"},"headline":"Review: Everyday Saints in J. Courtney Sullivan's New Novel","datePublished":"2017-05-11T10:35:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:52:20.649Z","description":"The Raffertys love one another, but their secrets turn them into strangers. 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