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Wonder and Shame

Wonder and Shame

by Gregory Orfalea

Format
Regular price $23.96 USD
Regular price $29.95 USD Sale price $23.96 USD
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Could you throw yourself away? Frank Matter asks himself, as he boards a one-way flight to Syria. He might as well ask: Can you find your life by losing it?

In spring 2016, after a run of personal sorrows, Frank, a lapsed Catholic clinging to one last scrap of faith, undertakes a dangerous journey to his family’s village of origin outside Damascus on a two-pronged rescue mission. He hopes to scoop up his deaf cousin Dayzi, whom he has loved since they were young, and escape with the beautiful seamstress to America, but their progress is halted by the terror and upheaval of the Syrian Civil War.

In the refugee camp of half a million people where they find themselves, Frank takes on another quixotic mission: to teach a deeply traumatized collection of orphans the game of American baseball. Everything and everyone resists it. Frank’s obsession will not only test his resolve and bedrock sense of reality. It will risk his life and the lives of everyone he is trying to help. It will transform them. He and his adopted family will wonder: How do you hold on to fair play, honesty, and respect for common ground in an increasingly cynical, callous, and power-driven world? Can healing happen—for an individual, a community, a country—in the face of abysmal violence, and if so, how?

Pope Francis said, “Go to the peripheries.” The gift of this book does just that. It stands against the troubling drift toward a “post-truth” society, where few know what is real anymore. Confronting the death of truth, this original, heartrending, finally triumphant story rings true.

Details

Publisher: Word on Fire Luminor
ISBN: 978-1-68578-316-7
Binding: Hardcover
Page count: 448
Dimensions: 6.25 x 9.25 (in)
Thickness: 1.53 (in)
Made in: United States
Language: English
Release date: Jun 15, 2026

About the Author

Gregory Orfalea

Gregory Orfalea was born and raised in Los Angeles. He is the author or editor of eleven books, including a seminal biography of Junípero Serra, the Franciscan founder of California, Journey to the Sun (Scribner). Angeleno Days, his collection of memoirs, won the Arab American Book Award and was a finalist for the PEN USA Prize for Creative Nonfiction. His short fiction has been collected in The Man Who Guarded the Bomb. His essays have appeared in, among others, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, Commonweal, and the Los Angeles Times Magazine. He has taught literature and writing at the Claremont Colleges, Georgetown University, and Westmont College. Based in Santa Barbara, Orfalea annually participates in the deep-sea swims of the Reef and Run event.

Shipping & Returns

Shipping policy

When will my order ship?

  • When items are in-stock, orders placed before 8am CT should ship out that same business day from our Illinois warehouse. 
  • Depending on your shipping address and the shipping method you select at checkout, in-stock items should arrive between 7-10 business days.
  • If your order contains a preordered/backordered item, no items in your order will ship until the preordered item becomes available (i.e. your order will ship all at once.)

 

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  • We offer two international shipping methods, Passport and DHL. Passport has all taxes and duties included in the shipping cost. DHL is delivered duties unpaid, and you may be responsible for taxes and duties when your package is delivered. 
  • International orders are subject to unpredictable delays by customs, and are subject to security mandates, duties, and other fees upon receipt.  
  • Please allow international orders a significant amount of flexibility in timeframe to receipt. 
  • We do accept international returns, but we are unable to generate return labels for international shipments. 

 

Can I make changes or corrections to my order?

  • Please contact us as soon as possible—ideally within 2 hours of placing your order—at 866-928-1237 or sales@wordonfire.org with your order correction details. We’ll work quickly to see if any edits to your order are still possible.
  • Once an order has shipped, we are unable to cancel it.

 

Refund policy

Return Policy

For non-damaged, standard returns:

Our products may be returned if they were purchased within the last 90 days, are unused, and are still in their original packaging. Original shipping costs are already collected by the shipper, and therefore the original shipping costs are not refundable.

We will provide a pre-paid return label to you. The maximum shipping cost covered will be $20. If the return shipping costs in excess of $20 to ship it to us, that will be deducted from the refund amount. (Meaning, if one orders 30 bibles and changes their mind after receiving them, it would not be good stewarding of our donor-provided funds for the ministry to cover that return shipment.)


Exceptions and limitations:

  • Bulk books (evangelization pricing): Books sold in pre-boxed quantities are evangelistic in nature and priced as low as possible, and we cover the original shipping cost. For that reason, we are unable to cover return shipping costs for bulk books. If you choose to return a bulk book, return shipping will be the customer’s responsibility in that case.
  • Seasonal titles (including Advent and Lenten Gospel Reflections): Seasonal titles are final sale and are not eligible for returns or refunds.


For damaged items: 

For damages to the item that are significant in nature, such as missing pages, large gashes in the cover, major creases in the cover, or dents, etc, please email us at sales@wordonfire.org for a no-cost replacement. For minor damages, like a nick or otherwise tiny blemish, or a slightly bent inward corner, or a slightly flaked embossing, these returns may be accepted but the return shipping will not be covered in order to be good stewards of the donor provided funds that make our non-profit ministry possible. For items that are shipped in protective packaging, such as the Leather Bible, note that the outer box is meant to absorb damage in shipping, and the box should not be considered the product itself, and the box is not replaceable.

 

How can I set up my return? 

Please email us to set up your return at sales@wordonfire.org. 

Your order record will be retrieved by the system based on the email address you used to make the purchase. For this reason, please have the email address or the order number (example: Q######) handy when beginning the return process. We are able to accept international returns, but we are unable to generate return shipping labels from countries outside the United States.  

 

Guarantee

Damaged items

If your book arrives with significant damage, such as missing pages, large cover gashes, major creases or dents, email sales@wordonfire.org for a no-cost replacement.

Minor blemishes may be accepted for return, but return shipping is not covered. Protective outer packaging is not considered the product and is not replaceable.

Read the full returns and replacement policy.

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About the Author

Gregory Orfalea was born and raised in Los Angeles. He is the author or editor of eleven books, including a seminal biography of Junípero Serra, the Franciscan founder of California, Journey to the Sun (Scribner). Angeleno Days, his collection of memoirs, won the Arab American Book Award and was a finalist for the PEN USA Prize for Creative Nonfiction. His short fiction has been collected in The Man Who Guarded the Bomb. His essays have appeared in, among others, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, Commonweal, and the Los Angeles Times Magazine. He has taught literature and writing at the Claremont Colleges, Georgetown University, and Westmont College. Based in Santa Barbara, Orfalea annually participates in the deep-sea swims of the Reef and Run event.

What People are Saying

“I have long admired Gregory Orfalea’s work—and with Wonder + Shame we are into welcome new territory. The novel is a winning mix of disparate elements—an original premise, a deft understanding of history, a refreshing take on the redemptive qualities of baseball, and the ever-evolving nature of cultural and religious inheritance. As ever, Orfalea writes with warmth and wit, and he invites readers to a truly original narrative universe where we accompany protagonist Frank Matter on a pilgrimage that moves through personal pain, family obligation, culture clash, and the intimate reckonings that shape identity and invite growth. Wonder + Shame is a deeply theological novel and experience—not only because of its pilgrim heart, but because Orfalea demonstrates well that, to find the greatest of treasures, one must travel through the caverns of sorrow and brokenness.”

—Michael Murphy, director of The Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage

“One man’s odyssey of hope and the remnants of faith becomes a tale of love and war and, most affectingly, baseball. Heartfelt, at times harrowing, Wonder + Shame is a wholly original account of Syria’s tragic history, as well as a meditation on what we owe one another.”

—Alice McDermott, National Book Award–winning author of Charming Billy, Absolution, and The Ninth Hour

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