Easter

Winner of the Mardi Gras and Waterstones Book awards, longlisted for the Costa Novel award

Its a delight to find a modern novel that takes religion and all the objections to it seriously as a subject: the rockpool of a London parish teems with all kinds of curious life Philip Pullman

Michael Arditti writes about Western Christianity, as it is manifest in the present Church of England, with pungency and satirical frankness. His style has Joycean echoes Muriel Spark

A Vicar and his congregation are caught up in a latter-day Passion story that will tear apart their lives.

The parish of St Mary-in-the-Vale is preparing for Easter. In his Palm Sunday sermon, the Vicar explains that Christs crucifixion and redemption are taking place every day. He little suspects that, before the weeks out, he and his entire congregation will be caught up in a latter-day Passion story which will tear apart their lives.

Michael Ardittis magnificent novel is both a devastating portrait of todays Church of England and an audacious reworking of the central myth of Western culture. Taking the form of a traditional triptych, it is at once intimate and epic, lyrical and analytic. Shocking events unfold against a backdrop of meticulously observed religious services. High Church ritual, evangelical revivalism and the ancestor-worship of the English gentry are all subjected to merciless scrutiny.