The Maiden of All Our Desires: A Novel

This story, set in the 14th century Europe, unfolds over one day, with backstories that give dimensions to that single day.<br /><br />Mother John is the abbess of Gaerdegen, an abbess that was founded by Ursula, who wrote a book. There is only one copy of it, and Brother Daniel, upon bishop’s request, tries to locate it as he wants to know why her influence has endured. And it brings him to the abbess of Gaerdegen.<br /><br />The story switches between her story and Father Francis, who lived during Ursula’s time, but the book doesn’t offer dates. I had to re-read the blurb to make sense of it. <br /><br />The story is character-driven, which I like. It seems to have a good flow with lyrical prose. However, it misses something, which at first I couldn’t figure out what it was. I wished things were better defined in this story. I found it blurry at times, not sure what drives the story besides the characters. <br /><br />Source: ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.<br />

Peter Manseau's The Maiden of All Our Desires offers a contemplative read. The "skeleton" of the book is a single day in a abbey in the 14th Century. Years ago, the world's population was decimated by plague; now, a snow storm of immense proportions sweeps in and the safety of those who survived the plague becomes uncertain. The novel moves about in time within individual chapters, giving background to specific characters, helping readers understand their choices on this day of disaster. <br /><br />Sister John, the abbess, has been accused of heresy because she regularly supplements canonical readings with writing by Ursula, the founding mother of the abbey. Sister Magdalene, raised in the abbey, is experiencing a sudden lack of faith and contemplates life outside. Novices quarrel, belittle one another, and engage in bullying. The one male figure in the Abbey is Father Francis. He's a gifted woodcarver; he's also well known for sexual irregularities that landed him in this remote abbey. And he's been at the heart of another, even darker event since his arrival.<br /><br />I found myself unable to view the characters populating this novel with any sort of neutrality, though I don't know whether that is what the author intended. As a result, I found myself angry at times, particularly when reading about the actions and self-justifications of Father Francis. Because he's able to grant absolution (or not), he's able to determine the eternal fate of the abbey's residents, and uses this power to achieve his own ends.<br /><br />The maiden of all our desires offers an engrossing read. The reader can get lost in its world, can share the frustrations of many of its characters. This is a don't-miss title for anyone who enjoys historical fiction that explores spiritual questions.<br /><br />I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss+; the opinions are my own.

What seemed a slow, meandering first third paid off in the end. I loved this book and the final twist was completely unforeseen. It IS a slow developing story where backstory is readily given as you are introduced to each character but none of it ruins the collective, interwoven finish.

This novel caught my attention because it was recommended to fans of Maggie O’Farrell and Emma Donoghue, two writers I really like.<br /><br />The setting is an isolated convent in 14th century England about 20 years after the Black Death. The duration is 24 hours during which a blizzard rages. A bishop is launching an investigation because of rumours of heresy. Mother John, the abbess, does indeed supplement canonical readings with passages from the Book of Ursula, the teachings of the charismatic founder of the order which are not in line with patriarchal dogma. Father Francis, the resident priest, was exiled to the remote convent as a punishment, and his relationship with the nuns is acrimonious so he cannot be relied on to defend them. <br /><br />Both the founder and the current abbess have feminist leanings. Mother Ursula founded the convent to create a place where women would not be “’at the mercy of cruel men.’” When seeking permission from the bishop to establish a convent, she commented that she did not want to join one of the existing convents because they “’reek of excess and sin’” and she’d “’sooner sprout flesh and seek Holy Orders than join such a house.’” Her teachings, which are read daily by Mother John, are “meditations on the value of the nuns’ labor, inquiries into the role of women in the salvation of mankind, and an idiosyncratic accounting of their lives.” Mother John herself joined the convent because she wanted to make a choice about her life; when her father arranged a marriage for her, she understood that she would be nothing more than a “’breeding sow’” and so said, "’I would don church clothes every morning for the remainder of my days before I would wear the skin of a man of your choosing.’”<br /><br />If there is a villain in the narrative, that is Father Francis. Though a priest, he soon earns a reputation as “’the choice confessor of widows’”: “His clerical robes had provided fine cover for . . . liaisons. The older women of the city spoke openly of his skill and generosity in the granting of absolution.” Once exiled to the convent, he shows little respect for the nuns. He tires of their “nunnish quibbling” and focuses on woodcarving rather than the spiritual lives of the nuns. When giving one sister her penance, he puckers his lips and then drops “a yellow-green glob into the center of the purple wine. ‘Your penance, Sister, . . . Drink. Then go and sin no more.’” He bears responsibility for what happens to Maureen but treats her with anything but Christian charity. He is wracked by guilt for “innocence destroyed because of his failure; goodness defiled because of his sin” but I wondered whether he’d ever cease being selfish and seek forgiveness directly from those he wronged. <br /><br />The perspective of various characters is given, most often that of Mother Ursula, Mother John, Father Francis, and Sister Magdalene who was born in the convent and has lived her entire life there. Flashbacks reveal their backgrounds and explain the reasons for their choices and actions. The backstories of Magdalene and the bishop’s clerk clearly suggest who they are long before their identities are confirmed at the end.<br /><br />There are wonderful touches of humour. Mother John goes to the necessarium before proceeding to the church “lest the necessarium become necessary in the midst of their prayers.” During his ordination exam, while reciting the Song of Solomon, Francis thought about a woman, so his instructors “could see his passion for the text even through his voluminous cassock.” Though he has chosen the priesthood, and abandoned his family’s woodcarving tools, Francis says, “’My vocation has not permanently sheathed my blade,’” an apt description from a man who quickly forgets his vows to minister to the physical needs of widows. <br /><br />Though set in the distant past, the book has echoes of the present. The references to a deadly disease, the building of a wall to keep out undesirables, patriarchal authority, and the perceived inferiority of women all had me thinking about modern parallels. Perhaps the ending also has a message for us: “<i>Search now for a blessing even in the wreckage . . . you are given an empty expanse in every direction. What will you write on this new blank page of creation?</i>” <br /><br />This is a thought-provoking book which explores how lives are shaped both by history and by personal choice.<br /><br /><b>Please check out my reader's blog (<a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/">https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/</a>) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).</b><br />

I enjoyed this book very much! The language is beautiful, the characters feel very human even when they make me angry about their behaviour. I also enjoyed the spiritual side of the novel: does your faith change because of life experiences?<br />Well worth reading! <br />I received a complimentary ARC of this novel from NetGalley and I am leaving voluntarily a review.

One of those rare books that I immediately want to re-read.

Top shelf novel! Ever so lyrically well written. This is even better than Lauren Groff's recent novel, "Matrix". Manseau's novel takes place over the course of 24-hours during the midst of a "super-sized" winter storm at the convent of a small order of religious women in the 12th century in France. Terrific story!

In Northern England lies the isolated abbey of Gaerdegen, untouched by the Black Plague. However, when its abbess, Mother John, is accused of heresy and a bishop comes to investigate, dark secrets threaten to unravel the abbey. <br /><br /><i>The Maiden of All Our Desires</i> by Peter Manseau is a wonderfully atmospheric, intricate, and well-researched historical novel set during the 14th century.<br /><br />To my delight, there’s also a deliciously gothic, almost mystical undercurrent woven throughout this story: from the raging blizzard outside to Mother John's strange fixation with the crucifix inside her room, and of course, there’s a lecherous, one-eyed priest as well.<br /><br />I think it’s also important to note that this book is a slow burn. It’s more of an introspective character study than an action-oriented book. However, the characters are so compelling and well-written, I found that I didn't mind too much.<br /><br />Thank you, NetGalley and Skyhorse Publishing, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest

DNF. Men should not write novels with female protagonists if they cannot do better than this:<br /><br />"Grandmotherly, yes, though the last of any children who might have been bled quietly onto a wad of wool a dozen years before."<br /><br />What!? This line almost made me stop reading, but I was very interested in the subject matter, so I persevered. Then I came upon this description of the main character, an elderly abbess, observing her own body:<br /><br />"Though her wrists were almost thin as candles, folds on her upper arms were loose and hanging. Each breast was a change purse, dangling with the weight of a single coin. Her belly, too, she saw as being somewhat bag-like: dry as burlap, bulged, and bumpy as if filled with the thumb-sized tubers grown beside the abbey barn."<br /><br />A change purse dangling with the weight of a single coin? If this is chapter one (it is), I'm out. I shiver to think of how this author might describe the act of love.<br /><br />

A deadly disease attacking silently and swiftly, those in power demanding adherence to their dogma, individuals standing up for themselves or falling prey to their failings -- all of these things and more are happening now. But they have happened in the world before.<br /><br />One of those times is the setting of Peter Manseau's The Maiden of All Our Desires. The plague came to 14th Century England, even to a remote convent that was founded by a woman who refused to let her father dictate her husband. It's a convent where that woman became Mother Ursula. Twenty years after the Black Death, her writings are still read by the nuns each day. Some of them are not exactly in line with the patriarchal thinking of the Church. The current Mother Abbess honors her predecessor and, as she grows older, wonders if she is hearing something divine in the long, lonely night hours. The youngest nun has only known the convent; she was born there during the plague. The convent's priest was sent there in exile decades ago, and dreams both of the sins that sent him there and the talent he still believes will let him go back to his city.<br /><br />The build-up of the story, including the lyrical descriptions of the beginnings of a snow storm and the comfort of believers in the mysteries of their faith, lead to expecting a certain kind of novel. It appears it's going to be one of those wild rides in which human souls fight within themselves as they confront and contemplate the differences between what they have been taught to believe and what they believe has been revealed to them.<br /><br />However, The Maiden of All Our Desires is not that kind of historical fiction. Instead, the characters and what happened to them in their past all serve to tell the story of Father Francis, the priest who was sent to the convent. He is a deeply flawed figure who doesn't recognize his strengths and abilities very often. As the younger son in a family of wood carvers, he admires his father and older brother, and has always loved his childhood friend, the girl who marries his brother. Francis goes from bad choice to bad choice and is caught. <br /><br />The priest's personal story doesn't fully fit in with the overall story of the convent -- how it came to be, what happened there during the plague -- and one of the biggest missed opportunities in the narrative is his determination to build a wall around the convent to keep the Black Death out. There are echoes in this determination seen today in both the muddled response to Covid and to immigration that could have made for fascinating explorations of why people do what they do.<br /><br />Set in the course of one 24-hour period, this novel brings up many notions of which full writing opportunities were not made. But the narrative did fight hard for its redemption ending, and for the promise that new days still may bring:<br />.<br />On this day you are given an empty expanse in every direction. What will you write on this new blank page of creation?<br /><br />As so many struggle in so many ways, it's an idea worth not discarding.<br /><br />