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The Maiden of All Our Desires
For fans of Lauren Groff, Maggie O’Farrell, and Emma Donoghue, a devastating novel of love, intrigue, and community in a time of sickness that remade the world
Fourteenth-century Europe. The Black Death has killed half the known world, and in an isolated convent, a small group of nuns spends their days in work, austerity, and devotion, chanting the Liturgy of the Hours. But their community is threatened. Rumors of heresy and a scandalous Book of Ursula, based on the teachings of the charismatic former abbess and founder of the order, have prompted the male church hierarchy to launch an investigation. The priest assigned to minister to the nuns, Father Francis, who is wracked by guilt for an unspeakable crime committed during the lawless plague years, was no friend of Ursula and can't be counted on to defend the order. Disrespect and rebellion infect some novices, and the youngest among them pines for the bishop’s chief inquisitor. And Mother John, the convent’s aging spiritual leader, fears she’s losing her mind after experiencing a vision that brings back her own rebellious past.
As events unfold over the course of a single day, a blizzard that has swept across Europe will break over the convent, endangering the women there and testing their faith. In this astonishing novel, the author of the award-winning Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter explores the territory between faith and freedom, and how the horrific events of history shape individual lives.
Fourteenth-century Europe. The Black Death has killed half the known world, and in an isolated convent, a small group of nuns spends their days in work, austerity, and devotion, chanting the Liturgy of the Hours. But their community is threatened. Rumors of heresy and a scandalous Book of Ursula, based on the teachings of the charismatic former abbess and founder of the order, have prompted the male church hierarchy to launch an investigation. The priest assigned to minister to the nuns, Father Francis, who is wracked by guilt for an unspeakable crime committed during the lawless plague years, was no friend of Ursula and can't be counted on to defend the order. Disrespect and rebellion infect some novices, and the youngest among them pines for the bishop’s chief inquisitor. And Mother John, the convent’s aging spiritual leader, fears she’s losing her mind after experiencing a vision that brings back her own rebellious past.
As events unfold over the course of a single day, a blizzard that has swept across Europe will break over the convent, endangering the women there and testing their faith. In this astonishing novel, the author of the award-winning Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter explores the territory between faith and freedom, and how the horrific events of history shape individual lives.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published February 15, 2022
122 people are currently reading
1099 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
June 27, 2022
This story, set in the 14th century Europe, unfolds over one day, with backstories that give dimensions to that single day.
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.
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.
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.
Source: ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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.
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.
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.
Source: ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
June 8, 2022
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.
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.
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.
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.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss+; the opinions are my own.
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.
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.
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.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss+; the opinions are my own.
June 28, 2022
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.
November 1, 2025
Beautiful writing and wonderful story-telling. I was raised Catholic, left to my own devices at 13, but continue to appreciate a good tale involving Catholics.
Will definitely read more by this author.
Will definitely read more by this author.
June 30, 2022
This novel caught my attention because it was recommended to fans of Maggie O’Farrell and Emma Donoghue, two writers I really like.
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.
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.’”
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.
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.
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.
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: “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?”
This is a thought-provoking book which explores how lives are shaped both by history and by personal choice.
Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
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.
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.’”
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.
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.
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.
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: “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?”
This is a thought-provoking book which explores how lives are shaped both by history and by personal choice.
Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
June 15, 2022
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.
The Maiden of All Our Desires by Peter Manseau is a wonderfully atmospheric, intricate, and well-researched historical novel set during the 14th century.
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.
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.
Thank you, NetGalley and Skyhorse Publishing, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest
The Maiden of All Our Desires by Peter Manseau is a wonderfully atmospheric, intricate, and well-researched historical novel set during the 14th century.
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.
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.
Thank you, NetGalley and Skyhorse Publishing, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest
June 9, 2022
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?
Well worth reading!
I received a complimentary ARC of this novel from NetGalley and I am leaving voluntarily a review.
Well worth reading!
I received a complimentary ARC of this novel from NetGalley and I am leaving voluntarily a review.
June 28, 2022
One of those rare books that I immediately want to re-read.
April 20, 2025
more of the nuns, less of the priest please
November 15, 2022
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!
March 20, 2022
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
.
On this day you are given an empty expanse in every direction. What will you write on this new blank page of creation?
As so many struggle in so many ways, it's an idea worth not discarding.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
.
On this day you are given an empty expanse in every direction. What will you write on this new blank page of creation?
As so many struggle in so many ways, it's an idea worth not discarding.
August 21, 2022
DNF. Men should not write novels with female protagonists if they cannot do better than this:
"Grandmotherly, yes, though the last of any children who might have been bled quietly onto a wad of wool a dozen years before."
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:
"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."
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.
"Grandmotherly, yes, though the last of any children who might have been bled quietly onto a wad of wool a dozen years before."
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:
"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."
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.
October 11, 2022
I really appreciated this.
It's set about 20 years after the Black Death in the isolated abbey of Gaerdegen in northern Europe, and is an absorbing story centred on Mother John, the aging abbess. It recounts a day to monastic time where the backgrounds of Mother John, the exiled Father Francis and sister Magdalene are unveiled as a bishop wants to examine possible heresy based on excessive veneration of Ursula, founder of the abbey. Themes of age, decay, religion, the impact of the plague and the problems of a cloistered community deliver a profound and thought-provoking read, beautifully rendered.
It's set about 20 years after the Black Death in the isolated abbey of Gaerdegen in northern Europe, and is an absorbing story centred on Mother John, the aging abbess. It recounts a day to monastic time where the backgrounds of Mother John, the exiled Father Francis and sister Magdalene are unveiled as a bishop wants to examine possible heresy based on excessive veneration of Ursula, founder of the abbey. Themes of age, decay, religion, the impact of the plague and the problems of a cloistered community deliver a profound and thought-provoking read, beautifully rendered.
February 18, 2022
“Did her eyes betray that lately during the liturgy she prayed not for Christ but for oblivion?”
This is potentially just a “me problem,” but this book was almost a strong 3 or weak 4 until the last 20-or-so pages when things got a bit too spelled out and tied up a bit too neatly.
What I liked: the mystery and metaphor, the brilliant descriptions/prose, the searching nature of the characters.
What I didn’t like: how male-grounded a book about a convent was, how neatly and explicitly the book book ended (removing a great deal of the nuance).
This is potentially just a “me problem,” but this book was almost a strong 3 or weak 4 until the last 20-or-so pages when things got a bit too spelled out and tied up a bit too neatly.
What I liked: the mystery and metaphor, the brilliant descriptions/prose, the searching nature of the characters.
What I didn’t like: how male-grounded a book about a convent was, how neatly and explicitly the book book ended (removing a great deal of the nuance).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 6, 2022
Fourteenth-century Europe. The Black Death has killed half the known world, andin an isolated convent, a small group of nuns spends their days in work, austerity, and devotion, chanting the Liturgy of the Hours. But their community is threatened. Rumors of heresy and a scandalous Book of Ursula, based on the teachings of the charismatic former abbess and founder of the order, have prompted the male church hierarchy to launch an investigation. The priest assigned to minister to the nuns, Father Francis, who is wracked by guilt for an unspeakable crime committed during the lawless plague years, was no friend of Ursula and can't be counted on to defend the order. Disrespect and rebellion infect some novices, and the youngest among them pines for the bishop’s chief inquisitor. And Mother John, the convent’s aging spiritual leader, fears she’s losing her mind after experiencing a vision that brings back her own rebellious past.
As events unfold over the course of a single day, a blizzard that has swept across Europe will break over the convent, endangering the women there and testing their faith. In this astonishing novel, the author of the award-winning Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter explores the territory between faith and freedom, and how the horrific events of history shape individual lives.
I read this book in one sitting, it was so good. This is a first read from this author but I will definitely read his award winning Songs for the Butcher's Daughter. The language, tone and setting for this book, The Maiden of all our Desires, is simply sublime. I could not put it down, but I can concur with some other reviews that found the beginning a little dense but I urge you to persevere. This story of a group of nuns in a god-forsaken place flows as we become familiar with the characters, is so beautifully told and it becomes an easy read. Wonderful writing. Many many thanks to Netgalley, the publishers and the author for a beautiful book.
As events unfold over the course of a single day, a blizzard that has swept across Europe will break over the convent, endangering the women there and testing their faith. In this astonishing novel, the author of the award-winning Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter explores the territory between faith and freedom, and how the horrific events of history shape individual lives.
I read this book in one sitting, it was so good. This is a first read from this author but I will definitely read his award winning Songs for the Butcher's Daughter. The language, tone and setting for this book, The Maiden of all our Desires, is simply sublime. I could not put it down, but I can concur with some other reviews that found the beginning a little dense but I urge you to persevere. This story of a group of nuns in a god-forsaken place flows as we become familiar with the characters, is so beautifully told and it becomes an easy read. Wonderful writing. Many many thanks to Netgalley, the publishers and the author for a beautiful book.
October 6, 2023
What are the desires of nuns? Is it to only worship God, or is it more entangled than that? The Maiden of All Our Desires by Peter Manseau looks at the different facets of desire and how it can change over time. On an isolated hill is the convent of Gaerdegen. In its early days, it developed a reputation as a singular and holy place. But 20 years after the plague, it has developed a different sort of reputation, much to do with the teachings of its founder Sister Ursula, known as the Book of Ursula. Is it heretical or just meditations compiled from a godly and beloved woman among the other sisters? The order follows the Divine Office, chanting the Liturgy of the Hours. On this particular day, a large snowstorm is ravaging outside, just as different desires are ravaging inside the abbey. The current Mother Superior, Mother John, hearing something in the wind, recollects how she ended up at Gaerdegen, a headstrong and literate young woman who refused to marry the man set forth by her father. Sister Magdelene was a child of the plague, born in the abbey. The Church has been the only thing she's ever known. But after meeting, and going head-to-head, with a young man sent to investigate the Book of Ursula, she may see there's more to life than what she has been living. Father Francis, Gaerdegen's only priest was from a family of master carvers, but as a literate second son was confined to the priesthood. Yet it was his desires that had him banished to Gaerdegen. Manseau nimbly weaves the past and the present of the abbey into this exploration of desire. His choice of the time period (14th century) allows him to connect with how desire plays out in a way that feels both alien and totally relatable, for these are people dealing with real feelings and emotions. He elevates the nuns above piety and endows them with human foibles that the service to God doesn't fully erase. Desires are real, we all have them, whether we acknowledge them or not.
August 4, 2022
Really enjoyed this novel--whose subject is very similar to that of Lauren Groff's recent Matrix--the reader learns the back story of several dozen nuns and a single priest in a tight-knit community in the Middle Ages when the plague strikes. While the more religious members debate what sins they have committed to merit this punishment, others in the community decide to build a wall to keep out pestilence. There are some lovely passages (a little snowstorm moves into the chapel, delighting the younger nuns who try to catch snowflakes on their tongues while the older nuns are caught up in the unexpected beauty of the moment); highly recommend...
November 4, 2022
This is historical fiction novel set in medieval Britain contains all of the elements that are of interest to me: monastic life, women forging their own destiny, well researched historical details. However the execution was unnecessarily wordy, overly religious and did not completely hang together. However, as another reviewer observed, it does remind one of some of the events that are taking place today: plague, patriarchy, institutionalism… I had to drag my self through the last part of the novel in particular.
December 28, 2022
Interesting but Slow
This book, set primarily in a cloister during the Middle Ages, is an interesting picture of religious life at that time. Perhaps the slow pace of the book reflects the slow pace of the people's lives, especially the nuns. It also provides a glimpse of Church politics of the time and guild practices. The writing is good, the few characters who are highlighted are well, if sketchily portrayed. But how well can you knoe cloistered religious? I plan to read other books by this author.
This book, set primarily in a cloister during the Middle Ages, is an interesting picture of religious life at that time. Perhaps the slow pace of the book reflects the slow pace of the people's lives, especially the nuns. It also provides a glimpse of Church politics of the time and guild practices. The writing is good, the few characters who are highlighted are well, if sketchily portrayed. But how well can you knoe cloistered religious? I plan to read other books by this author.
November 11, 2023
Manseau tells the story of one day in the abbey of Gaerdegen, founded decades prior by an eccentric, wealthy widow. The abbey has come under the scrutiny of the bishop, over rumors that the Mother Abbess is teaching not only from the bible, but from the writings of the abbey’s Founding Mother, Ursula. Woven into this present day conflict are notable events from the abbey’s past. As these secrets from the past are revealed, the story comes together in fascinating ways. A very fun read and beautifully composed.
October 24, 2025
Manseau explores the ways convents allowed for a limited freedom to the community of women that inhabited them and that tension with the male suspicion and required oversight of such freedom. He similarly captures the different responses to the terror of the plague and the inward versus outward atonement of past wrongs. The works manages to convey the comforting for some and stifling for others atmosphere of the convent and the ramification of decisions made in the heat of the moment. An interesting and rewarding read.
February 1, 2022
Who knew that this would be the time of books set in convents? I suppose it makes sense that what is borne out of us retreating into our homes would be books about retreat and the pace of the day.
This book is just as quiet as Matrix, though perhaps less euphonious. Groff’s work was infused with the musicality of the Mass. Manseau’s work is lovely, but much much quieter. This would be great for fans of : Folk by Zoe Gilbert or Colm Toibin’s House of Names.
This book is just as quiet as Matrix, though perhaps less euphonious. Groff’s work was infused with the musicality of the Mass. Manseau’s work is lovely, but much much quieter. This would be great for fans of : Folk by Zoe Gilbert or Colm Toibin’s House of Names.
October 2, 2022
Slow-moving, hard to follow. While I usually enjoy convent fiction, especially during the Black Death, there were entirely too many nuns to keep track off. Did not understand the rule book of the Abbess or why it was so sacred. The priest was just a terribly unpleasant character and the ending was anything but what I expected. It's a shame because I generally like Peter Manseau's writing. Just could not get into it and it seemed like it was all over the place.
January 8, 2023
As another reviewer described, this book was full of some pretty gross examples of why men shouldn't write women. I got further than she did, but I still had to bail about halfway through. Some of the worst bits seemed like the author was trying to make the book salacious to keep it interesting for himself and other men, but it was more like a Carry On film, but with nuns and a priest.
Read Sylvia Townsend Warner's The Corner That Held Them instead.
Read Sylvia Townsend Warner's The Corner That Held Them instead.
August 24, 2023
This is an interesting look into what life must have been like in an early nunnery. It felt a little disjointed with the two parallel stories of the priest and nuns, which really never came together. The author employs the technique of an impending storm to return the reader to the most current period in time, which I thought worked rather well. While the nun(s) seemed fairly believable, the priest's story was less so.
September 3, 2025
This is a wonderful book about death, transgression and renewal. The Black Death leads to all three. It's a timely book too after our own pandemic experience. All I can see now is more distrust and division. But we must look to Mother Ursula who would tell us to search for the opportunity for renewal. The medieval setting is authentic and evocative with the exception of potatoes which did not exist in medieval Europe.
August 22, 2022
It starts off intriguingly, and it includes some very intense scenes...it certainly drew me in and set the scene. That said, it ends up reading like a series of detailed flashbacks, leading to a present-day storyline that hardly exists by comparison. Toss in some moments that I found overwrought, the end result is an historical novel I found fascinating, but I admire more than I love.
November 16, 2022
During the fourteenth century, in a remote valley of the north, a cloister of nuns founded a ministry under Mother Ursula. When the plague hits, lives are changed, and leadership goes to Mother John. During a horrific advent storm, the past plays out over a period of twenty-four hours where faith is called for and heeded.
January 19, 2023
The Maiden of All Our Desires is a good effort in historical fiction, but, somehow, despite the author's obvious talent, it just failed to come together. Some of the characters were transparent, with no depth, while others were quite fully created. An uneven effort, but still worth reading, I think.
February 4, 2023
Some of the descriptions in this book were beautiful and it is well enough written, and the story engaging enough, to encourage me to keep reading. But I kept getting distracted by the effect the blizzard was having on the characters-or rather, although it was mentioned often, the fact that the cold didn’t seem to affect them at all.
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