When Angels Sing

by Turk Pipkin

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

When Michael Walker was a child, he'd wished that every day could be Christmas. But that was thirty years ago, before a tragic accident changed his life one Christmas morning.

He still can't muster any spirit for the holidays--and he doesn't want to. For him, it will always be a time of pain, a memory of that day. He scowls at his neighbors' fervent holiday traditions and even at his own children's joyful anticipation of the season's celebrations.

But when his young son faces a sadness as profound as his own, Michael is the only one who can save him. It takes nothing short of a miracle to give Michael the courage to make peace with his past and find the hope, joy, and spirit that he lost.

A testament to the depth of a parent's love, When Angels Sing is a life-affirming story you won't soon forget.

From The publisher, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, October 28, 1999

WHEN ANGELS SING tops the Christmas List

Last year, a large, cigar-smoking, golf-playing, Texas writer named Turk Pipkin wrote a Christmas story for his young daughter. And one day in late December, this unlikely Christmas book writer got a Santa Claus-size idea: he'd bind the pages with ribbons and send it off to his Texas-size list of family and friends.

Knowing nothing about the author, Algonquin's publisher came upon a copy that Pipkin had sent a friend. Completely surprised by her reaction (she cried), she sent it around to other readers in the house. The responses were unlike the usual reader reports:

"Wait. This is a fable set in contemporary Los Angeles and San Antonio?!"

"Is this a true story? Seems like it is but there's a character that seems to be Santa Claus?!"

"Someone on the subway asked if I was okay because I was SOBBING--uncontrollably."

"Christmas lights. That the family moves onto a street where everyone is crazy for Christmas lights-that's my favorite part of this story."

WHEN ANGELS SING is not your usual Christmas story. But in the tradition of the most memorable Christmas classics, it is a story about healing.

WHEN ANGELS SING is about fathers and sons. WHEN ANGELS SING is about a family that tragically loses and miraculously regains its spirit.

Like the light that the narrator's neighbors place at the top of his Christmas tree, we have placed WHEN ANGELS SING at the top of our Christmas list.