Beyond the Abbey Gates: A Novel

Catherine Maccoun
Trumpeter (2006)
ISBN 1590303717
Reviewed by Sondra Fowler for Reader Views (1/07)

Sister Ingrid, left by her father with the nuns of Greyleigh Abbey at the age of six, grew up cloistered away from the world. She was a quiet child, ardent student and lonely. She found acceptance with Sister Pipp and a solace in the healing the sister taught her. It was said Ingrid would be a saint, healing with the power of God but Ingrid found doubt and a crisis of faith in an injured troubadour name Jack.  He woke feelings in Ingrid she had never experienced. He challenged everything she had ever known.  He was the catalyst to Ingrid’s future.

Ingrid is forced on a journey of self-exploration. She shapes new identities, grows in ways she would never have imagined.  She could go down in history as a saint, healing injuries and illness with the power of God in her hands.  She run away with Jack and start a new life, make life with a husband and a family or she could just run away.  Where will Ingrid choose to end her journey?

The world around her is also on a journey -- religion, aristocracy, weakness of the human spirit and frailty of the human body. The church breeds corruption and allows absurdities in the name of God; a good man is challenged by demons of his own making.  Ingrid is drawn into this world, the world she was guarded from for so long.

Ingrid’s imprint is simply put in this excerpt from the prologue:

“This is the story of a failed saint. Church history records the miracles she performed in 1345, then lapses into silence…”

The story in “Beyond the Abbey Gates,” is well written, the characters have dimension and history.  You will cheer for Ingrid one moment and be disgusted by her choices the next. The world in which she struggles is vivid.  You can see the towns, walk on the dirt roads and feel the rain as it falls on your skin. It is a story well worth reading, I say story here and not book because a story is inviting, enchanting and captivating while a book is merely something you open. 

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