Randall Wallace: The Touch

I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of secret giving. My inspiration for stories comes from my personal experiences and fascinations.

In this story, Faith leaves behind a legacy of “secret giving.” Where did that concept come from? Is there a connection here to your work with Habitat for Humanity?

Certainly Jesus originated the message in His parables about giving and in His opposition to pride and public righteousness. Lloyd C. Douglas inspired me with Magnificent Obsession , his novel that became one of my mother’s favorite movies.

Miracles are, by definition, beyond our control, but giving in secret opens us to miraculous possibilities.

Habitat for Humanity is a perpetual-motion miracle, and the people who work with it and gain homes through it have given me far more than I have given them. With Habitat for Humanity, your hands get dirty and your heart gets clean.

What do you want your readers to take away from this story?

I want readers to come away more open to miraculous possibilities, feeling in touch with the source of miracles.

How did you research the medical aspects of this story?

I wrote the story first and then went back to research to see if what I’d postulated was actually possible. A quick check of the Internet will tell you that robotic surgery is at the forefront of medical technology. Regarding the double aneurism, I needed something that had confounded doctors to set as the obstacle, and this condition seemed particularly difficult to cure.

In the story, Andrew makes microscopic sculptures. Where did you come up with this idea?

Decades ago I came across an article about a man who made carvings so small you’d need a microscope to view them, and when I began writing The Touch , I remembered this amazing talent.

Why did you decide to set this story in the South?

I was born in Jackson, Tennessee, lived in Memphis as a child, and spent my teenage years in Lynchburg, Virginia. The University of Virginia and rural Appalachia are familiar settings and seemed the perfect locations for this story.

You once said nothing can move an audience unless it moves you first. Is this true of The Touch ? In what way did it move you?

The Touch is sparse, plain, direct, like the people of the Blue Ridge Mountains! I also wanted it to feel poetic, like the words of a hymn. When I read it, I feel what I felt when I sang the songs at revivals, standing next to my grandmother.

1. The story begins in the Sistine Chapel. In what ways is the famous painting The Creation of Adam woven through the story? Andrew’s touch is evident in his surgical ability. In what way does Faith have the touch ? How is it different from Andrew’s?

2. Andrew carries on Faith’s legacy of secret giving. How does it help him after losing Faith? Has anyone in your life passed on a legacy that you’ve been able to keep alive?

3. Why is it important that the giving remain secret? In what ways does secret giving affect the giver? The receiver?

4. How does that idea of giving in secret contrast with what Lara experiences when working with donors and attending fund-raisers?

5. The young Andrew Jones suffered from asthma. How does he use what he learned from that illness to perfect his surgical procedures and make microscopic sculptures? Has God used anything in your life to teach you a special skill or lesson?

6. Luca says, “There is a God, and that God loves us. That is all we need to know.” Andrew needs to believe those words, though he does not realize how much or how soon he will need to believe them—and that they will mean, literally, everything. How do Luca’s words play out for Andrew by the end of the story?

7. Lara possesses the trait—some might call it the affliction—of believing that if anything needs accomplishing, she has to acquire the skills for it herself. Do you or anyone you know suffer from that same affliction? What happens if you or they give up control?

8. What do you think Jones means when he says, “Come back with me to Faith’s clinic. Let’s stop trying to save the world, or even save ourselves. Just help. One person, one at a time. Maybe that’s salvation”? How is this a turning point for both Andrew and Lara?

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The Touch

Copyright © 2011 by Randall Wallace. All rights reserved.

Cover photo of doctor copyright © by ERproductions Ltd/Getty Images. All rights reserved.

Cover photo of road copyright © by D L Ennis/Getty Images. All rights reserved.

Cover photo of Sistine Chapel ceiling: The Creation of Adam , Buonarroti, Michelangelo/Vatican Museums and Galleries, Vatican City, Italy/The Bridgeman Art Library.

Author photo provided by Eric Charbonneau. Copyright © 2010 by Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.

Designed by Stephen Vosloo

This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wallace, Randall.

The touch / Randall Wallace.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-4143-4366-2

1. Surgeons—Fiction. 2. Grief—Fiction. 3. Biomedical engineering—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3623.A4438T68 2011

813´.6—dc22 2011020427