THE PRIESTʼS WIFE
by A. G. Rivett
Publication announced in The Bookseller.
Caerpadraig on the cusp of change
Venture across the Pass of the Sea that runs between Behʼ Mora and Behʼ Talor Gan. Descend to the haphazard collection of roundhouses that comes into view. You will find Caerpadraig on the cusp of change. A vagrant issues a challenge. The priest falls ill and dies. Faced with the loss of her home and her role, his widow Morag sets out on a quest for identity.
Herald review
“A beautifully written, well-paced exploration of Morag’s growth, Rivett does an excellent job of putting us inside her head. We start to feel we know her intimately. And a positive portrayal of a Christian community clinging to its pagan origins, playing up the virtues of their rootedness in the Earth, their belief in balance between male and female, and contrasting it sharply with a bureaucratic, patriarchal church intent on standardising and regulating worship.” Alistair Mabbott in The Herald
Historical Novel Society review
Susie Helme, writing for The Historical Novel Society, states: “The Priest’s Wife is beautifully written and evocative of the culture of the time; no anachronistic language intrudes. This is a misty, green world, where the Otherworld of the Sidhe is not so distant from life among the living. A doctor, crofter and ordained minister himself, Rivett understands the tight relationship of the peasants with the land and the seasons and their religious ideas and practices.”
Historical Novel Society interview
In an interview for the Historical Novel Society, Leslie S Lowe asks A G Rivett about the major themes of The Priestʼs Wife. He wonders: “Why the focus on this topic now?”
The Story
When her husband the priest dies, Morag loses more than her life partner. With him goes her home and her place in the community. When her identity is also called into question, she sets out on a quest to find herself anew. Meanwhile, the new priest brings with him a religion that seeks to sweep away the mix of Celtic myth and Christian story that has sustained the islanders for many years. When Morag finds herself at an impasse, it is through the people she has met along the way that she finds a deeper sense of purpose and of self.
A vividly imagined journey through an alternative Celtic reality which skilfully combines an intriguing narrative with lyrical description and spiritual depth.
Maggie Hamand
Author of Virgin and Child
Suspenseful and engaging. A thoroughly good read that challenges the assumptions that hold us back.
Isabel Clarke
Author of Madness, Mystery and the Survival of God
This book has been published with the financial support of the Books Council of Wales.
