THE PROMISE

Another of these novelettes of which Knopf has published several that have been extraordinarily successful- The Snow Goose, The Pool -- both with the quality of the psychosensory that is the distinguishing mark of this book, also. A young couple, whose marriage is at the breaking point, the split over Alicia's absorption in her radio success, and Pat's inability to come to terms with it, are involved in a motor smashup, as they come down through the mountains approaching the Valley and San Francisco. The experience they share, on that tenuous borderline between life and death, the promise they make to Peter, who welcomes them, gives them the healing experience of oneness again and speeds them on their way- is it to be Life or Death? -- all this they try to push aside. But as Christmas comes- and the shallowness of the pattern they have chosen is revealed, the promise seems uppermost. And- all unsuspecting- they meet again at the cabin where Peter had given them the choice..... An ephemeral, other-worldly sort of story, with a message which will be significant to many readers. Christmas plus sale.