Rootstock has announced the June 17 release of Unconverted: Memoir of a Marriage by Polly Merritt Ingraham of Hopkinton.

When they meet, Rob is a devout divinity student and Polly is not religious, yet they feel a spark. When they fall in love, Polly wonders if their union can survive their theological differences. In lyrical prose that is reflective, candid, and warm, this is the story of how an extroverted nonbeliever thrived in three decades of marriage, three children, and four relocations as Rob rose through the ranks to become the tenth bishop of the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire.

“Anyone who has felt the pressure to conform to other people’s beliefs will recognize themselves in Ingraham’s story of marriage, church, compromise, and resistance,” said Kate Cohen, Washington Post columnist and author of We of Little Faith. “Unconverted follows one woman’s quest for identity and community, and it wrestles with questions faced by many Americans who don’t share the faith of their neighbors, or even their spouses. When you love someone with beliefs different from yours, can you connect deeply and commit fully while preserving your sense of self?”

“I was sitting in a church pew with my children, Sunday after Sunday, asking myself, ‘How did I get here?'” Ingraham said. “I had to wonder about the radical turns our lives can take. What I found was that the effort to stay true to oneself, even to uncover new parts of oneself, while being devoted to another person, is a crucial aspect of marriage,” she said.

Polly M. Ingraham lives with her husband in Hopkinton, N.H. She launched a blog, “The Panorama of a Pastor’s Wife,” when her family was nestled for a dozen years in Western Massachusetts. This is her first book.

Unconverted: Memoir of a Marriage (ISBN: 978-1-57869-400-6) is available for the book trade through Ingram and for the public everywhere books are sold with autographed copies available from Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord.

Gibson’s will host the author for a book launch event on Wednesday, July 9 at 6:30 p.m. Free and open to the public.