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Parson’s daughter Mara Johns arrives as a postgraduate student at a great northern cathedral city. Antagonistic to the church and fiercely independent, she repels all friendly overtures and seeks spiritual answers in her theological research. But when her past involvement in an extreme sect resurfaces, she finds her quest won’t stay academic. Nor can she hold out against her persistent would-be friends. Gradually she unbends and laughs with Maddy and May; locks horns with the insufferable ‘polecat’—and finds herself torn between the attentions of two suitors. But they are both ordinands, and she’s vowed she’ll never marry a vicar.
When her carefully controlled world falls apart, it is these new friends she must turn to if she wants to survive.
“As original as its abrasive but engaging heroine” – Pat Barker
“It is a real pleasure to find what many readers are always on the lookout for: a new and original writer of a rattling good story told with intelligence and depth.” – The Tablet
“Fox’s novel, drawing skilfully on the high seriousness of a venerable religion, offers more substantial satisfactions than a reader has any right to expect from a first novel about student life.” – The Sunday Times
