His grandfather had been a Catholic priest. A story in seven words, and his life the unsolved mystery.
Rome, 1953. David is young, handsome, charismatic, and sworn to celibacy. He is freshly ordained, and about to return to England to begin life as a priest. Devotion to God is all he's ever known, and all he thinks he ever will.
In London, Margaret is entangled in an impossible love affair. Increasingly drawn to the Church, she sets out to join the new revolutions of sex and faith.
Decades later, Margaret is being cared for by her grandson who has just discovered the strange truth of his family history. So begins a story of forbidden love and ardent faith, of devotion and sacrifice, as the consequences of this unlikely union play out across the generations.
Stephanie Sy-Quia's first book of poetry, Amnion, won the 2021 Forward Prize for Best First Collection, an Eric Gregory Award, and a Somerset Maugham Award. It was longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, the Laurel Prize, and the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize. Her writing has appeared in the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Boston Review, The White Review, Five Dials, and Granta, among others. She lives in London. An exquisite slow-burn forbidden love story between a priest and a teacher, laced with passion and faith, set between Rome and England during the tumultuous 20th century
