Janet Rich Edwards's fierce, luminous debut novel, Canticle, follows a young woman named Aleys in 13th-century Belgium as she seeks a deeper connection with God and runs afoul of the ambitious men who control the local church. Edwards's narrative explores dynamics of love and power, the complexities of faith, and the quiet influence of the beguines, a group of independent women who live in community, committed to serving God and one another.
Growing up the daughter of a wool merchant in Bruges, Aleys loves her mother's retellings of the stories of saints and prophets. She refuses marriage to an associate of her father and joins the Franciscan friars. They find shelter for her in the beguines' compound, the begijnhof. Friar Lukas, Aleys's Franciscan spiritual adviser and mentor, is convinced she has been touched by God, but his brother, local bishop Jaan, is both unsettled by Aleys's spiritual passion and determined to use her as a pawn in his power games.
Edwards draws sharp contrasts between Aleys's genuine search for faith and the calculating power plays undertaken by Jaan and other religious leaders. While Aleys is intelligent and hungry for spiritual experience, her youth and naivete leave her susceptible to others' machinations. As Aleys attracts more attention from Jaan and other corrupt church officials, she is forced to face new kinds of trials, and redefine the meaning of devotion and sacrifice.
Thoroughly detailed and sensitively told, Canticle is an exploration of a young woman's hunger for a deeper purpose, a sharp-eyed examination of power's corrosive effects, and a testament to the impact of quiet, faithful service like that of the beguines. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams