Catherine Ryan Hyde's novels deal with the human condition --- our complex natures, our frailties and the mistakes we make, as well as our ability to forgive, learn, change and show compassion to others. All of her books feature, to some extent, unlikely people who forge families. In FALLING APART AND OTHER GIFTS FROM THE UNIVERSE, we meet Addie Finch, who hides her emotions behind the brittle walls she has erected around herself.

Addie is a combat veteran and was a police officer until drinking ended her career. Now a security guard for a storage facility, she has been sober for eight years. But her job is lonely; she stares into computer monitors showing camera shots of the storage units from dusk until dawn. She is supposed to keep the homeless people who frequent the nearby abandoned warehouse from sleeping in vacant storage units. She thought her life had hit rock bottom, but there were depths that she had yet to plummet.

One night, Addie finds an injured, frightened, 17-year-old boy huddled in a vacant unit. Something about Jonathan causes her to do something unusual. She lets him sleep in her SUV, where he'll be warm and protected, for the night. And he tells her that he hopes good karma comes her way. That’s exactly what she needs, even though she doesn't believe in it.

Addie has been attending AA meetings, but her sponsor died over a year ago. She asks a longtime attendee, Wendy, if she would be her sponsor. Wendy consents, but she has several requirements to which Addie must agree. These demands, including total honesty and that she complete some AA steps again, are part of what aid Addie in her journey.

"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."

In her efforts to help Jonathan and the other homeless people who use the warehouse for shelter and to protect them from a dangerous bully, Addie does something that unleashes deep turmoil in her soul and has unintended consequences. She doesn't know how to deal with these emotions and feels bereft.

Wendy helps as Addie struggles with feelings that she doesn't realize are depression until Wendy points it out. She comments about what Addie shared during an AA meeting, when Addie describes her feelings of being in a boat and going nowhere, and thinking that the world is dark and thick. Wendy tells her, "That was just about the best description of depression I think I've ever heard."

But it takes more than one person to help Addie. Jonathan becomes a sort of adopted grandchild. Addie is the first person in his life to care about him, and he fiercely reciprocates that emotion.

Young people often inhabit Hyde's novels, and in this one she creates two needy teenagers. Addie takes Jonathan under her wing. This innocent boy has been attacked and was abandoned by his mother when she left him with his alcoholic father. When he ran away from his father, his mother refused to take him back in. Jonathan is pathetically grateful for whatever Addie gives him, but he also takes care of her. They eventually become the family each of them needs.

The other teen, Jeannie, is younger than Jonathan. But in addition to being homeless, she is an addict. Like Jonathan, she has been beaten and abused while homeless. Jonathan befriends her, and both he and Addie want to help her. Addie tells her about NA and takes her to meetings.

As is standard in Hyde's novels, there are concepts that she develops that make us stop, reread and consider carefully what we have just read. Her books present universal truths, and statements about life and people that ring true for all of us. For example, Wendy tells Addie that laying in bed and trying to think about where to go next isn't the way to proceed. "You're doing it backward, hon." She says life doesn't work that way. "You want to know what life has in store for you? Then get up and start living it and you'll find out. You can't figure it out in your head first. Put one foot in front of the other."

Well into the novel, I wondered about the lack of a dog, cat or chicken --- some animal that provides the unconditional love that Hyde believes in and often uses in her work. I was not disappointed. In fact, she demonstrates that our companion animals can help bring out feelings that were buried deep inside. The gentle touch of a dog can cause a wellspring of emotion. And just having a pet is comforting, which is why people have emotional support animals.

FALLING APART AND OTHER GIFTS FROM THE UNIVERSE really dives deep into the soul of those suffering from addiction. Hyde writes so convincingly about the problems, the struggles and the path to sobriety that I asked her if she wrote from personal experience. She graciously shared, "I am a recovering person with quite a few years of experience." One of the reasons this book and the characters in it feel so real is that Hyde has lived through beating addiction. She effectively conveys the feelings, the emotions and the battle one encounters along the way.

This might seem to be a novel about people who are flawed. But it's not. It's really a story about those who weren't given a fair chance to be all they could be. They were abused as children, neglected and subject to violence. Hyde's brilliance shines when she shows us everyday people who in their own way are heroes. Because for some, just surviving each day is heroic. And for those who also can be generous and charitable, and help others, they are stupendous. Like all of her 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.