Rapture

An imaginative and audacious historical novel from the best-selling author of Love Objects and An Isolated Incident.


WINNER OF THE QUEENSLAND LITERARY AWARDS FICTION PRIZE


WINNER OF THE ARA HISTORICAL NOVEL PRIZE READERS CHOICE AWARD


SHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIME MINISTER'S LITERARY AWARD FOR FICTION


SHORTLISTED FOR THE ABIA LITERARY FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR


LONGLISTED FOR THE STELLA PRIZE



'Rapture is astonishing a scorching vision of a book. Drawing on history, legend, speculation and gossip, Maguire's medieval girl-Pope story is made of many things: flesh and earth and blood; ambition and abnegation; rage and transcendence, all pouring into this pagan, biblical, strange and mighty work from an imagination in soaring flight.' Charlotte Wood, author of Stone Yard Devotional



'In Rapture, Maguire has performed the dazzling feat of making the earthly feel miraculous and the heavenly feel intimate. This glorious novel both burns and sings.' Fiona McFarlane, author of The Sun Walks Down


'Profound, frightening and extraordinarily beautiful.' - Evie Wyld, author of The Bass Rock


'A powerful story of female courage and faith, of deception and love.' - The Age


The motherless child of an English priest living in ninth-century Mainz, Agnes is a wild and brilliant girl with a deep, visceral love of God. At eighteen, to avoid a future as a wife or nun, Agnes enlists the help of a lovesick Benedictine monk to disguise herself as a man and devote her life to the study she is denied as a woman.


So begins the life of John the Englishman: a matchless scholar and scribe of the revered Fulda monastery, then a charismatic heretic in an Athens commune and, by her middle years, a celebrated teacher in Rome. There, Agnes (as John) dazzles the Church hierarchy with her knowledge and wisdom and finds herself at the heart of political intrigue in a city where gossip is a powerful and deadly currency.


And when the only person who knows her identity arrives in Rome, she will risk everything to once again feel what it is to be known and loved.


Praise for Rapture:


'A complex heroine who wrestles with the demands of faith, lust and ambition... A forceful wonder' The Times, Historical Fiction Book of the Month


'A gripping, gorgeous story of faith and feminism... A rapturous read' Daily Mail 


'Fresh and intimate Rapture is steeped in history but it wears those trappings lightly; it's an easy read with plenty of intrigue and high stakes through Joan, Maguire manages to tease apart, if only for a moment, the purity of faith itself from the ambitions of the institutions that control it.' Guardian UK 


'This book is so alive and real I was totally hooked from the start. It captures both the grit of daily human life and the soaring ecstasies of the eternal burning spirit. Another masterpiece from Maguire.' Bri Lee, author of The Work


'Rapture is the perfect title for this wonderful, original story of devotion, passion and purpose. I felt myself transported, seamlessly, to another time, long ago, with Agnes, the novel's determined protagonist, as my guide. I loved her.' Sofie Laguna, author of Infinite Splendours 


'An enthralling evocation of a world in turmoil, threaded through by the life of a singular, brilliant woman. The wonder of Rapture is that Maguire makes a time more than a thousand years distant feel so vivid and its concerns so alive. Agnes's choices are enduring: How do you become your truest self; what might you sacrifice along the way? This richly inhabited novel is as audacious and unwavering as Agnes herself.' Lucy Treloar, author of Days of Innocence and Wonder


'A strange and magnificent vision of a novel: in Agnes, Maguire embodies a ferocity of both the mind and body, ambition and humility, wisdom, desire, sacrifice, grace and a refusal to follow the path laid down for her. Maguire's language and storytelling soars. I was transfixed. Maguire effortlessly transitions to deeply researched and utterly compelling historical fiction in the style of Lauren Groff, Hannah Kent, Anthony Doerr and Pip Williams.' Kate Mildenhall, author of The Hummingbird Effect 


'A spectacular story of shape-shifting, love and faith, as a singular woman journeys into the depth of her soul. A feat to bring such early history to new life, so rich in desire, and so spare in self-pity. It enthralled me.' Jessie Burton, author of The Minaturist 


'Bold and unexpected, Rapture buzzes with life and energy. It is an extraordinary story of womanhood, told so beautifully that I was thinking about it long after I had finished.' Rosanna Pike, author of A Little Trickerie


'Maguire brings a deep sense of empathy to the time period, allowing Agnes' challenges and emotions to take on a modern salience. Rapture would find a home in modern feminism an imaginative testament to the determination of the curious mind to find a way to grow, amid strict social laws that assume such brilliance impossible.' ArtsHub