Rapture - The reimagined life of the first and only female pope

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 secure a place at the revered Fulda monastery. So begins the life of John the Englishman: a matchless scholar and scribe of Fulda, 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 of the old and new languages of Europe, theology and Church law - 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.

About the author

Emily Maguire is the author of seven novels and three non-fiction books. Her 2016 novel, An Isolated Incident, was shortlisted for the Stella Prize, the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year and the Miles Franklin Literary Award. She was twice named as a Sydney Morning Herald Young Novelist of the Year, was the 2018/2019 Writer-in-Residence at the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney and the 2023 H. C. Coombs Creative Arts Fellow at the Australian National University. Emily has an MA in literature and works as a mentor to young and emerging writers.

Product details

• Authors: Emily Maguire, Maguire Emily
• Publisher: Sceptre
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 27.03.2025
• EAN: 9781399731065
• ISBN: 978-1-399-73106-5
• No. of pages: 320
• Dimensions: 158 mm x 236 mm x 30 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; FICTION / Women, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Historical fiction, FICTION / Literary, FICTION / Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology, FICTION / Romance / Historical / Medieval, Myths and Legends, Myth & legend told as fiction, Narrative theme: Love and relationships, FICTION / Feminist, Religious and spiritual fiction, Religious & Spiritual Fiction, C 500 CE To C 1000 CE, FICTION / World Literature / Europe (General), Later 9th century, c 850 to c 899