The people's desperate need to believe that there are powers that be who have their best interests at heart is put to a cruel test by Villiam and the priest, especially in this year of record drought and famine. Among their number is Father Barnabas, the town priest and lackey for the depraved lord and governor, Villiam, whose hilltop manor contains a secret embarrassment of riches. For some people, Ina's home in the woods outside of the village is a place to fear and to avoid, a godless place. Her gift often brings her the transmission of sacred knowledge on levels far beyond those available to other villagers, however religious they might be. Ina's gifts extend beyond childcare: she possesses a unique ability to communicate with the natural world. One of life's few consolations for Marek is his enduring bond with the blind village midwife, Ina, who suckled him when he was a baby, as she did so many of the village's children.

NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2022 BY The Millions, Harper's Bazaar, New York Magazine, LitHub, AV Club, and more In a village in a medieval fiefdom buffeted by natural disasters, a motherless shepherd boy finds himself the unlikely pivot of a power struggle that puts all manner of faith to a savage test, in a spellbinding novel that represents Ottessa Moshfegh's most exciting leap yet Little Marek, the abused and delusional son of the village shepherd, never knew his mother his father told him she died in childbirth.

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