Literary Thriller ‘merges Crime with Catholicism’
Patrick, the first Irish Pope, discovers he is intersex and finds himself pregnant. Maggie Hamand’s Virgin & Child grips onto this wild premise and runs from there.
This isn’t a book about miracles. Maggie is a journalist, has a science degree, and what happens in the novel is within the realm of the possible. Virgin & Child is alternate history, that lets the reader expand their sense of what is credible.
What gives this novel true bite is how real it feels. Maggie grew up as what her era called a tomboy, and gave birth to three sons. She worked and campaigned for women's fertility rights. She has also studied theology and this book began as a PhD in that subject, before she changed to creative writing.
'I found the theology PhD too constricting, and felt that only by writing fiction could I fully explore the issues I wanted to tackle,' says Hamand. 'I felt that only through an imagined direct and bodily experience could a celibate Pope understand a woman's experience. I hope that by reading the novel others will identify with the character and be shocked into a new understanding.''
Like works by Brian Moore, Graham Greene, Robert Harris and Piers Paul Reed, the novel reads as a gripping thriller while at the same time tackling questions of religion, faith and gender. What makes Virgin & Child different is that it’s not written by a man. Did a mother conceive the notion of a virgin birth? Probably not. Mothers know the act of creation is all too human and messy.
This novel takes a Pope, God’s elect on Earth who tradition says has to be a man, and feminizes the whole concept. How would that alter a male worldview? Virgin & Child gives an answer as an act of searing storytelling.
‘Strangely touching… written with great elegance and authority. It tackles “head on” some of the most challenging issues for the Roman Catholic Church around gender and sexuality’ Sara Maitland ‘Cleverly merges crime with Catholicism and piety with a dangerous love… wonderfully original and absorbing.’ Mary Flanagan
Maggie Hamand is a journalist, novelist, and creative writing lecturer. She was the first winner of the World One-Day Novel Cup and her novel, The Resurrection of the Body, was published by Penguin and has been optioned for film and television. She was founder and director of the award-winning independent publisher Maia Press. Maggie has a degree in biochemistry, a Masters in theology, and a PhD in creative writing from the University of Hull. She has taught in a range of institutions including Holloway Prison and is author of the best-selling Creative Writing For Dummies. She lives in East London.
For more information please contact: Martin Goodman, Barbican Press: martingoodmanuk@gmail.com
My Review
For more information please contact: Martin Goodman, Barbican Press: martingoodmanuk@gmail.com
This has to be the most conceptually striking novel I've read this year. When the first Irish- born pope, Pope Patrick, is elected, he upholds the traditional tenets of Catholicism - he is against the ordination of women, fails to comprehend transsexuality and believes that abortion is a sin. What Maggie Hamand then does is nothing short of genius - she plays with 'what ifs' as Pope Patrick is told by his doctors that he is intersex; not only that but he is also pregnant.
This realisation forces Patrick to reevaluate his beliefs. Having been accosted by a woman railing against his doctrine on the souls of unborn foetuses, Patrick gradually comes to realise the dilemmas facing women worldwide. It also sets in motion a counter plan by the Vatican hierarchy who will stop at nothing to preserve the Vatican's traditional stance.
Whilst the storyline borders on the edge of plausibility - it is feasible but rare for an intersex person to become pregnant - especially so at fifty-five I would imagine and interestingly all babies born to an intersex parent have been male so far - this scarcely matters as the reader shares with Patrick the emotions and moral decisions that have to be made once he finds himself pregnant.
The style and pace of the book are perfect, carrying the reader along in a highly-charged atmosphere of suspense as Patrick comes to understand what is important. The author's theological background is evident yet the prose is convincing. This book opens far more questions than it answers. I was left reeling and wishing perhaps that this were a real story rather than an alternate history. Imagine waking up a different sex, or a different religion or colour? Perhaps then the world might become a more understanding place?
