It’s the 1960s, and David is handsome, charismatic, and sworn to celibacy. An exemplary Catholic priest, devotion to God is all he’s ever known, and all he ever thinks he will. In London, Margaret is adrift, healing from the loss of her parents and the end of a recent love affair. Increasingly drawn to the church, she sets out to join the new revolutions of sex and faith, taking up a teaching position at an all-girls school in David’s diocese.

Decades later, Margaret is being cared for by her grandson, who has just discovered the strange truth of his family history. So begins the story of forbidden love and ardent faith, devotion and sacrifice, as the consequences of David and Margaret’s unlikely union play out across generations. A first novel from an award-winning poet, A Private Man traces the exquisite love of two brilliant characters caught between passion and piety as they seek to usher the church they cherish into a more progressive era.

Read a Q&A with Stephanie Sy-Quia

Praise for A Private Man:

One of the Observer‘s Best Debut Novelists of 2026

“Inspired by the author’s grandparents, Stephanie Sy-Quia’s assured debut traces a blazing, illicit romance between a Catholic priest and a feminist theologian in England during the social upheavals of the 1960s.”—Hamilton Cain, TIME

“For all its descriptive opulence, it’s a novel stiff with tension, with sorrow, fear and disappointment wound into its most ecstatic and transcendent moments. Serious in its themes and concerns, it’s also fleet-footed and absorbing. Sy-Quia might have begun with a family story, but she’s ended up with a piece of impressively ambiguous fiction that explores different forms of devotion, and what happens when we reach their limits.”—The Observer

“A tender account of enduring love and a captivating portrait of two characters from an impressive new talent.”—The Economist

“Full of secrets, sensuality, devotion, and doubt.”—ELLE

“A vivacious woman falls in love with a priest in 1950s England in the emotive and revelatory debut novel . . . the narrative of forbidden romance blossoms into a revelatory meditation on the double bind of faith, showing how the characters’ impossible decision will force a loss either way. This is superb.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Based on the true story of the author’s grandparents, this intimate look at the marriage between a defrocked priest and a theology teacher takes place in 1960s England and 21st-century France . . . A tender, surprising excavation of minds meeting and hearts singing through disappointments to very human deaths.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Stephanie Sy-Quia’s beautiful debut novel is inspired by her own grandparents’ unique love story, unfolding between 1950s Rome, 1960s England, and 21st-century France . . . A story of slow-burn romance, but also of hard-won friendship, the novel explores faith, duty, and love. I couldn’t put it down.”—The Independent, “Best Books of 2026”

“Stephanie Sy-Quia was 16 when she learned about her family’s remarkable past . . . Years later, after university, she went to France to care for her grandmother . . . The result is A Private Man, a fictionalisation of this thrilling true tale. It is a love story of intellect and passion, and a treatise on the repercussions of Catholicism’s lack of willingness to modernise, particularly in terms of gender.”—The Observer, “The Best Debut Novelists of 2026”

“A lush, evocative, and sexy narrative about old age, duty, passion, and theology . . . A truly impressive debut novel, one I could see appearing on the Booker longlist, and which I’ll want to read and reread in the years to come.”—Sunday Times

“Religious belief is something novelists seem curious about once again, especially when it rubs up against sex and desire. The British-American poet Stephanie Sy-Quia’s sensitive first novel, A Private Man, draws on the true story of her grandfather, a Catholic priest.”—New Statesman, “The Best Fiction to Read This Year”

“Serious and ruminative yet pulsing with sensuality.”—Daily Mail (UK)

“A thrillingly accomplished work, and the central conflict between passion and duty yields insights both complex and sensual.”—Mail on Sunday

“Sy-Quia’s restrained, chiselled prose will delight admirers of Elizabeth Bowen and Anita Brookner, where the orderliness of the surface underlines the emotional churning beneath.”—Church Times

“Sy-Quia’s generous writing never imposes itself, or attempts firm answers to the difficult questions she poses. In particular, the elucidation of David’s conflict with a private faith, public loyalty, and personal devotion is taut and well-constructed. Posed with clarity and poise, Sy-Quia’s important questions are moving ones and, even for the faithless and lucky in love, important ones.”—The Big Issue

“Exquisitely written and, moreover, utterly compelling.”—The Tablet

“A Private Man seeps easily into your bloodstream, full of people you long to know, its theological geography mapped with affection and wit. With timelines that shift like weather, the novel is a smooth stone skimming the surface of a pond—then the light changes, and it becomes a carved chalice lit by fire. This one’s going to stick for a while.”—Leif Enger, author of I Cheerfully Refuse

“I loved A Private Man. Sy-Quia writes beautifully and energetically about faith and food and clothes and sex. Her prose embraces beauty and her characters are complex and compelling. It’s a rare pleasure to read this novel.”—Sarah Moss, author of Ripeness