Richard Paul Evans of "Christmas Box" fame has a new book on the shelves — but not the shelves of Deseret Book.
Evans, the ad-executive-turned-novelist, said he is "puzzled" by Deseret Book's refusal to stock "The Last Promise," which was just published by Dutton in New York.
"It happened in an awkward sort of way," Evans said during an impromptu interview Wednesday at Borders in the Crossroads Plaza, where his first book signing had been moved. "Every year I do my first book signing at Deseret Book. So, I called my staff and they said, 'Deseret Book is not going to do the first signing with you. In fact, they're not even going to sell your book.'
"I just started laughing, because I have a lot of friends at Deseret Book. Then I realized none of my staff was laughing."
Evans said he knows his new book is not another "Christmas Box." "It's not a warm, fuzzy, 'Chicken-Soup-for-the-Soul' kind of book. It's a sophisticated, adult story about a woman caught in an abusive marriage. To me the message is as important as anything. We need to understand that we need to take care of each other. We all need love — and if we're deprived of it, eventually we're gonna find it. So, I wanted to write about that."
According to Sheri Dew, president of Deseret Book, it was simply a business decision. "We love Richard Paul Evans and have sold 100,000 copies of his various books, and we anticipate selling tons more. But we commissioned a study by the Wirthlin Worldwide Organization, and they told us that a Deseret Book customer does not like to buy a book from us that violates their core values.
"It reinforced in our minds the fact that our customers have certain expectations of us. In the last four months, we developed a more clearly defined set of buying guidelines — what our customers want and what creates a disconnect for them."
Unfortunately, Dew said, Evans' new book centers on an adulterous relationship. The new guidelines specifically rule out "excessive profanity, heavy violence and immorality." Dew conceded that making this decision means "systematically reviewing" titles the store has previously offered.
"We love Richard, but in this book, adultery is implied — and the bigger issue is a married woman having a physical relationship and falling in love with a man she is not married to."
"Adultery is a pernicious evil," Evans said. "But there is no adultery in this book. I didn't write something that condones adultery. A man stays with a woman through the night on the banks of the Arno River. To me, it was a compassionate, tender thing he is doing to a woman who has been emotionally abused for seven years."
The passage he referred to is in chapter 31: "Dawn comes early to Florence. It was only five o'clock, and the curtain of morning rose across the city and exposed the two of them, still together on the bank of the golden Arno, Eliana lying against Ross's chest, encircled in his arms. They had talked most of the night. . . . "
Evans added that he suspects the flap will actually help the sales of his book. "Now everyone wants to read the book and see what is so controversial. None of the Deseret Book people I talked to had read the book. I said, 'Well, who read it?'
"I told my 14-year-old and she said, 'Dad, this isn't what your book's about — did they get the wrong book?' "
Evans remains proud of his book. "What is really telling is that not a single one of the LDS booksellers — and there are hundreds of them — has batted an eye. They've upped their orders.
"They've been saying, 'Thank goodness! Deseret Book doesn't have it. Now we can make some money on it.'"
E-mail: dennis@desnews.com