The heartrending story of the forbidden love between a nun
and a priest-by a writer who illuminates the details of
everyday life, from the quiet rhythms of the cloister to
the exuberant sensuality of the Amalfi Coast When her
family moves to Puerto Rico in the early 1950s, thirteen-
year-old Beryl Bissell enters a milieu heady with sexuality
and passion. Uncomfortable in her developing body and
yearning for unconditional love, she becomes convinced that
only God can satisfy her longing. On the day following her
eighteenth birthday, she enters a cloistered convent in New
Jersey, believing that God has called her to this way of
life.
At first, she is blissfully happy. Within the year,
however, she has become anorectic and prey to other
obsessive compulsions. Her vocation at risk, she overcomes
these disorders and perseveres for another ten years, until
she must return home to Puerto Rico to help care for her
ailing father.
Thrust once more into the sensual world of Puerto Rico, she
discovers that religious garb cannot protect her from her
budding sexuality. She is drawn to Padre Vittorio, a
handsome Italian priest, and undergoes a belated coming of
age. For the next three years, as she travels to and from
the island, she struggles to reconcile human desire with
spiritual longing. Unable to confide in either her mother
or abbess, she tries to find the inner freedom that would
allow her to love fully. The events that follow take the
reader on a dizzying journey into the heart of desire, both
spiritual and human.
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