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Anne Lamott is back with that readers have come to expect. Lamott named her book after Candi Staton’s well-known gospel song.

“Hallelujah in spite of it all,” Lamott writes. In spite of the heartaches, disappointments, and betrayals that we all experience and that we burden ourselves and others with. “Hallelujah anyway” because of God’s grace and mercy.

Lamott weaves her own stories with those of people in her life as well as biblical narratives, such as Ruth receiving mercy from Boaz, Joseph in the pharaonic courts, Jesus’ offering mercy to the woman at the well, and the story of the Good Samaritan.

Lamott’s desire is for all people to know the reality of God’s mercy, available and free. She references Pope Francis’s writing about the mercy of God and the primary message of the gospel as mercy through Jesus.

“Hallelujah anyway and no matter” is Lamott’s comforting, simple, but challenging message. This world is “starving to death” for mercy. (Riverhead)