Excerpt from The World of Tomorrow by Brendan Mathews, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"A necessary winnowing of the wheat from the chaff," he said. As he spoke, his hand went, as if by its own volition, to the diamond-topped stickpin in his lapel. He touched it the way Francis had been taught to strike his breast when the priest intoned the Agnus Dei.

The others nodded, either in agreement or out of a desire to move on to another topic. Francis offered a "Quite, quite," though with little gusto, and fixed his gaze on the man's pouched sow eyes, then on the diamond, and finally on his wife.

Excerpted from The World of Tomorrow by Francine Mathews. Copyright © 2017 by Francine Mathews. Excerpted by permission of Little Brown & Company. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.