Judge Z: Irretrievably Broken (signed) [signed] [first edition]

Judge Atticus Zenas has seen too much from his front-row seat in a Lexington, Kentucky family court. For ten years he has watched the slow-motion death of marriage. He has seen families fall apart, destroyed by abuse, neglect, drugs, divorce, crime, cruelty and indifference. As he struggles every day in court to pick up the pieces and protect helpless children, he is on the ragged edge of falling apart himself. This novel is drawn from real life. The tragedy of fatherlessness. The hazards of co-habitation. The damage to children. The casual ease of drive-through divorce. And the sadness that God’s greatest gift to mankind – marriage -- is in alarming decline. Amidst the daily chaos of family court, “Judge Z” takes a journey of discovery to find the lost meaning of marriage—as God’s best metaphor for His relationship with us. Through bizarre court cases, law school classes, Sundays at a country church, lessons from a wise mother, a trip to India, and a trial that could destroy his career, he asks the question that confronts America: Is marriage “irretrievably broken”? The surprising answer is cause for hope.