Visitation - by Carolyn Gillespie (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

'A darkly atmospheric coming of age story so haunting it kept me riveted until the very last page' JANE HENNIGAN, AUTHOR OF MOTHS

'Immersive and beautifully rendered' LOUISE FINCH, CARNEGIE PRIZE SHORTLISTED AUTHOR OF THE ETERNAL RETURN OF CLARA HART

'Emotive, tender, funny, intriguing, and brilliantly well written' LIZ RUMBOLD

It's 1983 Dundee, Scotland. Smart lonely and raging with grief, Ella is done trying to fit in. Caught up in the post-punk scene and on the verge of going off the rails, she is packed off to St Cecilia's, a convent boarding school to keep her out of harm's way. But when her new classmates claim to have been visited by the Virgin Mary, Ella is drawn into a far darker world of chaos.

And who can tell what's fake and what's real?

From the immersive and beautifully rendered 80s setting to the timeless themes of belonging and identity, Visitation is a captivating exploration of loss, longing and difference.

Review Quotes

"From the immersive and beautifully rendered 80s setting to the timeless themes of belonging and identity, Carolyn Gillespie's Visitation is a captivating exploration of loss, longing and difference. Gillespie perfectly captures the contradictory desires of adolescence through the brilliantly feisty Ella, whose spiky vulnerability stole my heart from the very first page." Louise Finch, Carnegie Prize Shortlisted author of The Eternal Return of Clara Hart

"Grief and bereavement, sexuality, mysticism and friendships are handled with subtlety and nuance. Gillespie demonstrates a real mastery of plot, setting and pacing, combining coming-of-age elements with knotty issues of grief, faith and belonging." Alice Tarbuck, author of A Spell in the Wild