Falling Apart and Other Gifts from the Universe

A Novel

By: Catherine Ryan Hyde

Narrated by: Michael Crouch, Coleen Marlo

Two disparate people—lost in their own way—find an unexpected healing connection in a poignant novel about redemption and chosen family by New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde.

An army veteran with a career as a beat cop behind her, security guard Addie Finch is tough—on the outside. Internally, she’s in crisis mode. She’s lonely, introverted, struggling through AA, estranged from her son, and, at sixty-two years old, questioning her role as a protector. She also has a soft spot for the underdog that’s about to change her life.

Addie finds Jonathan, a homeless teenager abandoned by his mother, holed up in a warehouse and vulnerable to the elements and to predators. Touched by the boy’s gentle nature and a wisdom beyond his years, Addie offers him temporary shelter in her garden shed in exchange for maintaining the sprawling property. It’s an act of kindness and purpose that means the world to Jonathan. But when Addie faces a situation that sends her internal world tumbling, the emotional connection with Jonathan, once the unlikeliest of strangers, becomes her lifeline as well.

As both process past traumas, Addie and Jonathan forge a surrogate grandmother-grandson bond—a chosen family that could restore trust and heal hearts they thought were broken forever.

©2025 by Catherine Ryan Hyde, Trustee, or Successor Trustee, of the Catherine Ryan Hyde Revocable Trust created under that certain declaration dated September 27, 1999. (P)2025 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Like all of [Hyde’s] books, this one is touching, heartwarming and thought-provoking. It is everything we have come to expect from a Catherine Ryan Hyde novel, and we don’t want the story to end.”—Bookreporter

loves the story, characters, and acting

dealt with real issues that affect all of us in a useful and meaningful wonderful way. leaves you with hope.

Kindness

Once again…a beautiful story about the kindness and goodness in people! Great character development! I loved them and the story!

The caring

Would recommend this book for anyone young to older had to gab a tissue a few times

Loved this book

Loved this story, the characters, their broken lives and their journeys to heal. The social issues addressed were well done. Also, loved the narrators

Found myself not wanting it to end.

Great book great characters great story loved it definitely found myself wanting more and it not to end.