THE PRIEST'S WIFE
by A G Rivett
ISLE FINCARA TRILOGY, Book 2
ISBN: 978-1-7393623-1-7
Paperback Original at £9.99.
Hardback £18.
Also available to purchase direct from the Books Council of Wales on Gwales.com, or from Amazon as an eBook.
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 The Resurrection of the Body, Virgin and Child, Creative Writing For Dummies
Author of The Resurrection of the Body, Virgin and Child, Creative Writing For Dummies
Were you to venture across the Pass of the Sea that runs between Beh' Mora and Beh' Talor Gan, descending to the haphazard collection of roundhouses that comes into view, you would find Caerpadraig on the cusp of change. A vagrant issues a challenge. The priest falls ill and dies. And, faced with the loss of her home and her role, his widow Morag sets out on a quest for identity.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Island, the new Archpriest wields a new broom, sweeping away the old ways and old wisdom. When Morag returns, she finds Father Aidan installed in the priest's house, keen to curry favour with his distant overseer.
It takes time for Morag to realise her help lies with those on the margins, and longer still for her to find the inner resource that enables her to step into a new role within the community of Caerpadraig.
A G Rivett's beautifully-written speculative fiction, set on an 11th century Celtic island, draws on historical tensions between the Celtic and mainstream churches and presents a sensitive exploration of the impact of coercion and injustice on mental health.
"In The Priest's Wife I wanted to explore the struggle between nature-affirming and nature-denying world views. I believe this strikes a chord with the present awareness of our precariousness in pursuing the course humanity has set of seeking to control nature."
A.G. RIVETT
THE AUTHOR
A.G. Rivett claims to have lived several lives in the course of his one life. Born in London, raised in the Home Counties, he has been a doctor, a priest and a crofter in the Scottish Highlands. He has lived in rural Northern Nigeria and knows what it is like to be ‘a stranger in a strange land.’ He is married, has three daughters and two grandsons and now lives in Ceredigion where he cultivates a wildflower meadow.
A G Rivett discussing his work at the Moray Art Centre in Findhorn.
A G Rivett
READER REVIEWS
Alastair Mabbot, The Herald
Rivett does an excellent job of putting us inside Morag's head, to the point that we start to feel we know her intimately. A positive portrayal of a Christian community clinging to its pagan origins, contrasting it sharply with a bureaucratic, patriarchal church intent on standardising and regulati... Read more
Susie Helme, Historical Novel Society
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. Rivett understands the tight relationship of the peasants to the land and the seasons and t... Read more
Bro Daniel, OSB, Pluscarden Benedictines magazine
This novel evokes a profound sense of the beauty of place and the community bound to that place. The reader is drawn in and, in a way, joins the characters on their journey. If the setting is a putative thousand years in the past, the underlying themes are contemporary. Modern counter-cultural aspi... Read more
BlueInk Review
Rivett has a deep appreciation for the northern Scotland landscape, and skilfully evokes its beauty while also recognizing how its harshness would have impacted people 1,000 years ago. The author successfully captures the cadence of Celtic speech.
Sharon Rimmelswaan, Beyond the Books blog
A skilfully written story of one woman and her journey to discover herself. The characters are well fleshed-out. The way the author weaves religion into the novel makes it a layered and interesting read and the exploration of mental health is sensitively handled.
Madeleine MaGlynn, maddiereadsherstory blog
Unique in its voice. Warm and personal and very gentle. It's a slow burner, yet has a sense of pace and purpose, and always pitches up some new, unexpected twist.
Shirley Barr, Forres
The Priest's Wife was all I had hoped for, and more. The isle and the island-life of the community of people so beautifully imagined by A. G. Rivett in The Seaborne, continues to draw me in. Morag is magnificent. Watching her story unfold was a gift. I await the final book in the trilogy with great... Read more
Benedict Thwaite, Lampeter
Another beautiful and sensitively-written narrative by A.G. Rivett. This book will strike a resonant chord with modern-feminist readers and, in a post-Christian society, those interested in alternative ancient faith traditions.
Kate Porteus
I found reading The Priestʼs Wife an absorbing experience, and an interesting development from Vol 1, The Seaborne.
As the widow of a priest myself, there was much to resonate with…..despite my experience being in the twenty first century! The tussles between different approaches to Christianit... Read more
As the widow of a priest myself, there was much to resonate with…..despite my experience being in the twenty first century! The tussles between different approaches to Christianit... Read more
Katharina Kroeber, Forres
Both books of the Isle Fincara Trilogy want to be read several times: first as a good yarn, a page turner, books for staying up all night to find out what happens next. Then, as a story from the oral tradition, for reading aloud and slowing down into the deep breath of the story, into the fabric of... Read more
Gelda MacGregor, Forres
Perhaps this intense spiritual search for the divine feminine is the aspect of the book which would connect us, in the 21st century, most easily with the Isle Fincara characters. This is a personal search which still continues for many of us today.
Cornelia Featherstone and Sylvia Roberts, Findhorn
We have the delicious habit of reading books out aloud to each other and just finished The Priest's Wife. What a treat! We enjoyed the glimpses of how a strong woman in difficult circumstances finds her place and power within a very patriarchal society, how a holistic spirituality interacts with a ... Read more
Ann Veronica Watkins, Lampeter
I enjoyed The Seaborne and longed for the second part of the trilogy, The Priest’s Wife. When it came, I was not disappointed. The glossary of names and occasional reference (without repetition) to the first book enabled me to pick-up, from where I left-off with ease. I found myself going to bed r... Read more
Chrisanthe Georgiou, Forres
How good it was to read this thought provoking and timeless tale that celebrates both the importance of community and power of faith – so relevant in today’s challenging times.
Kevin on Good Reads
The Priest's Wife" investigates the profound themes of identity, faith, and transformation. A G Rivett's storytelling is rather remarkable, and the narrative's emotional resonance will leave an impression on readers. This is a novel that touches the soul and also invites introspection into the intr... Read more
Ann Barr, Forres
I was transported into a magical alternative reality. Captivated by the characters, the landscape, the Celtic spirituality and the thought-provoking situations. There are some similarities to be drawn with our present troubled and confused times and much food for thought.
Romany Buck, Forres
A tour de force! Poignant and sensitively told, A G Rivett's wide vision and inherent knowing gives birth to a book that expresses deep truth about the significance of our times. A book to encourage those who teeter on the brink of claiming their place within the whole.
