Rapture

LONGLISTED FOR THE STELLA PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE ABIA LITERARY FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR ' Rapture is astonishing - a scorching vision of a book. Drawing on history, legend, speculation and gossip, Maguire's medieval girl-Pope story is made of many things: flesh and earth and blood; ambition and abnegation; rage and transcendence, all pouring into this pagan, biblical, strange and mighty work from an imagination in soaring flight.' - Charlotte Wood, author of Stone Yard Devotional 'In Rapture , Maguire has performed the dazzling feat of making the earthly feel miraculous and the heavenly feel intimate. This glorious novel both burns and sings.' - Fiona McFarlane, author of The Sun Walks Down 'Profound, frightening and extraordinarily beautiful.' - Evie Wyld, author of The Bass Rock 'A powerful story of female courage and faith, of deception and love.' - The Age The motherless child of an English priest living in ninth-century Mainz, Agnes is a wild and brilliant girl with a deep, visceral love of God. At eighteen, to avoid a future as a wife or nun, Agnes enlists the help of a lovesick Benedictine monk to disguise herself as a man and devote her life to the study she is denied as a woman. So begins the life of John the Englishman: a matchless scholar and scribe of the revered Fulda monastery, then a charismatic heretic in an Athens commune and, by her middle years, a celebrated teacher in Rome. There, Agnes (as John) dazzles the Church hierarchy with her knowledge and wisdom and finds herself at the heart of political intrigue in a city where gossip is a powerful-and deadly-currency. And when the only person who knows her identity arrives in Rome, she will risk everything to once again feel what it is to be known-and loved. Praise for Rapture : 'This book is so alive and real I was totally hooked from the start. It captures both the grit of daily human life and the soaring ecstasies of the eternal burning spirit. Another masterpiece from Maguire.' - Bri Lee, author of The Work ' Rapture is the perfect title for this wonderful, original story of devotion, passion and purpose. I felt myself transported, seamlessly, to another time, long ago, with Agnes, the novel's determined protagonist, as my guide. I loved her.' - Sofie Laguna, author of Infinite Splendours 'An enthralling evocation of a world in turmoil, threaded through by the life of a singular, brilliant woman. The wonder of Rapture is that Maguire makes a time more than a thousand years distant feel so vivid and its concerns so alive. Agnes's choices are enduring: How do you become your truest self; what might you sacrifice along the way? This richly inhabited novel is as audacious and unwavering as Agnes herself.' - Lucy Treloar, author of Days of Innocence and Wonder 'A strange and magnificent vision of a novel: in Agnes, Maguire embodies a ferocity of both the mind and body, ambition and humility, wisdom, desire, sacrifice, grace and a refusal to follow the path laid down for her. Maguire's language and storytelling soars. I was transfixed. Maguire effortlessly transitions to deeply researched and utterly compelling historical fiction in the style of Lauren Groff, Hannah Kent, Anthony Doerr and Pip Williams.' - Kate Mildenhall, author of The Hummingbird Effect 'A spectacular story of shape-shifting, love and faith, as a singular woman journeys into the depth of her soul. A feat to bring such early history to new life, so rich in desire, and so spare in self-pity. It enthralled me.' - Jessie Burton, author of The Minaturist 'Bold and unexpected, Rapture buzzes with life and energy. It is an extraordinary story of womanhood, told so beautifully that I was thinking about it long after I had finished.' - Rosanna Pike, author of A Little Trickerie 'Maguire brings a deep sense of empathy to the time period, allowing Agnes' challenges and emotions to take on a modern salience. Rapture would find a home in modern feminism ... an imaginative testament to the determination of the curious mind to find a way to grow, amid strict social laws that assume such brilliance impossible.' - ArtsHub