Canticle - by Janet Rich Edwards (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Set in thirteenth-century Bruges, this debut novel follows a spirited young woman's explorations of faith, agency, and love among a community of fiercely independent women.

Aleys is sixteen years old and unusual: stubborn, bright, and prone to religious visions. She and her only friend, a young scholar, have been learning Latin together in secret--but just as she thinks their connection might become something more, everything unravels. When her father promises her in marriage to a merchant she doesn't love, she runs away from home, finding shelter within a community of religious women who refuse to answer to the Church.

Among the hardworking and strong-willed beguines, Aleys glimpses for the first time the joys of belonging: a life of song, meaning, and friendship in the markets and along the canals of Bruges. But forces both mystical and political are afoot. Illegal translations of scripture, the women's independence, and a sudden rash of miracles all draw the attention of an ambitious bishop--and bring Aleys and those around her into ever-increasing danger, a danger that will push Aleys to a new understanding of love and sacrifice.

Grounded in the little-told stories of medieval women--mystics, saints, anchoresses, and beguines--and introducing a major new talent, Canticle is a luminous work of historical fiction, vividly evoking a world on the verge of transformation.

Review Quotes

"Canticle is a ferocious fever dream of a novel brimming with love, sisterhood, sacrifice, and lyric delight. As we watch young Aleys attempt to forge a sacred life, she is thrown from belonging to isolation to the pyre, raising questions that strike closest to the bone: What is a miracle? Who gets to decide? And in the end, what does the world really want from us?"--Michelle Hoover, author of The Quickening and Bottomland

About the Author

Janet Rich Edwards is a graduate of GrubStreet's Novel Incubator program. She is a professor of epidemiology at Harvard University and works in the Division of Women's Health at Brigham and Women's Hospital. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.