Book Review: Confessions of a Pagan Nun

Reviewed By: Jennifer Jordan

Confessions of a Pagan Nun     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Kate Horsley
Class/Genre:   Fiction   Religious Fiction
Shambhala Publishing Novel/History/Spirituality - 208 pages

While I read this book, I had to check three times to make sure it was fiction. It is such a vivid, human and honest tale I became enthralled by the tale, spending yet another sleepless night in bookdom.

We are reading the secretly written journals of a nun at St. Brigid's in 500 A.D. Ireland. She composes her life story within the confines of her clochan, a beehive shaped cell made of stone, between transcriptions of sciathluireach (protective prayers from one of the books of Patrick). Her story is enfolded in the story of the pagan Irish who are being slowly converted to Christianity in the new era. Her beginnings were in a tuath, or tribe, born into far - reaching poverty and starvation that visited on all but the very rich. All lived in a literal hand to mouth existence, but Gwynneve's existence is broadened first by a mother that teaches her the way of herbs and inner strength. Then, by a wandering druid named Giannon, from whom she learns to write and she learns of the mysteries of life. Her life eventually takes her to the monastery, where odd events beginning closing in on Gwynneve, threatening her very existence. Her words are all that she has to preserve her in the face of obliteration.

This book serves as a wonderful history of Ireland and of religious subjugation. This is a well-researched, well-crafted tome about survival of the spirit, the frailty of human nature and power of the written word.

Jennifer Jordan

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Jennifer Jordan