This debut took me by surprise and sucked me in, what a treat to discover! Set against a bleak suffocating landscape, this story observes a power struggle as a convent and it's surrounding community try to survive despite endless natural and supernatural horrors. I found the character's relationships and the internal convent politics compelling and deeply believable, Giles writes extremely well. Sapphic nuns, folk horror, what more do you need?!

This book is incredible, one of my favourites so far this year. It was such a joy to pick it up knowing absolutely nothing about the story and discover it for the first time. It's dark, full of heart and humour and I found the social politics between the characters absolutely captivating.

Haunting and harrowing, there’s something incredibly visceral about this book. You live and bleed with the sisters, and alongside them, you become ever more threatened by the unspeakable curse that’s haunts their steps. The story follows Hilda, the infirmarian and the heart of the story. She’s devoted to healing and helping her sisters, despite the rules and regulations of the convent. I loved Hilda’s wealth of knowledge and wisdom, and her emotional vulnerability; she’s a refreshing protagonist. The story digs deep into Hilda and her past, and through her, we see the harsh reality of 10th century Norfolk. Wulfrun is the bright star that arrives at the convent. In contrast to Hilda, Wulfrun is not content to watch their home fall to ruin, and the two complement each other. They each have their ghosts, and they learn to live with the others’ faults and flaws. Giles has created a remarkable tale of faith and love, of the ways that people can be tested and moved to great feats. I loved the symbolism and the characters, but my favourite part was seeing the ordinary lives of women in the past. Throughout the story, they do cause conflicts between themselves, but they also come together as a community. The connection between them all is so profound and I deeply appreciated it. This is a powerful book that blends together folklore and history expertly, and tells a beautiful story of survival and faith. In the best way possible, it’s like nothing I’ve ever read before.

In Britain, we call the Middle Ages the Dark Ages because the written record is sparser than during the Roman occupation or the Norman era afterwards, but the texts do exist, many of them ecclesiastical. Taking monastic life as the basis of this finely tuned and perfectly wrought historical novel, Giles weaves in folk beliefs and temporal politics (with a small p) to give us this miniaturist masterpiece. In the fens of East Anglia, a distant abbey is fading into the wetlands. The Abbess rules with a rod of iron, but she cannot overcome the ravages of nature or even the folk beliefs of the lay folk who keep the abbey going. The infirmarium Hilda riles against the Abbess’s iron hold but new entrant Wulfrun—intelligent, widowed, powerful—arrives as the world begins to close in on the abbey and threatens ruin by disease, water and malign magic. Who will win out, or will nature overtake all? There are no clear heroes or villains in this carefully observed slice of medieval life, but the horror is in the lack of options when things become more and more wrong. No matter what the complex characters try, they are stymied at every turn, until the greatest sacrifices are required. The atmosphere is suitably dank and creepy, with the fens acting as both jailer and monster, and an awful end appears inevitable. Giles plays a long game in this book and never telegraphs exactly where it’s going so the ending, where Giles brings the characters to places that you could not predict exactly, is both well-earned and a perfect coda. Four and a half stars

It is close to the end of the first millennium and in the wet fens of East Anglia a small convent is struggling to survive. Into their midst comes Wulfrun, the widow of a theign and a woman who has visions. When a boy is lost in the marsh Wulfrun sees it as a curse from the Mere itself and then things become really difficult for the community as their food stores are lost and then there is a huge flood. As a power struggle starts in the convent, appeasing the mere must be the only way to save themselves. This book is a really intense read which draws together ecclesiastical history, the life in a convent in the 10th century and local folklore in a really engrossing way. There is lots of background around folk healing, the events never veer too far towards horror, merely resting at unsettling and the cold, difficult life of the nuns is imagined well.