A rich and powerful exploration of desire, sin and redemption, by
"our best chronicler of the rewards and pitfalls of present-day
faith" [PHILIP PULLMAN] "A novel that probes any number of
aggressive varieties of moralism, while testing the reader's own
moral alertness for rigour, realism and generosity. An engrossing,
three-dimensional, grown-up narrative." ROWAN WILLIAMS "An
irresistibly readable, thoughtful and characteristically witty
examination of the quandaries and compromises faced by the Church
of England in an era of decline . . . I loved this book for its
lightness of touch about serious subjects and for dialogue that
glitters like clashing rapiers." MIRANDA SEYMOUR As a woman in the
early 1980s, Clarissa Phipps is unable to pursue her vocation to
the priesthood. Instead, she joins the BBC's religious affairs
department, where she is sent to interview celebrated artist,
Seward Wemlock, about the panels he is painting for an ancient
Cheshire church. "A serious and important writer" ROSE TREMAIN
Thirty years on, Clarissa, now rector of that same church, chances
upon Brian, the chief bell-ringer and husband of her closest
friend, fondling fifteen-year-old David. Dismissing David's claim
that they are in love, Clarissa is obliged to act. Will she choose
friendship or conscience, sympathy or her official duty of care?
The fallout from that choice forces her to reflect on the original
controversy over Wemlock's panels and her concerns about his
relationship with the teenagers who modelled for Adam and Eve. Had
she acted on the whispers that reached her at the time, how many
lives - her own included - would have turned out differently? The
Choice is a rich and powerful exploration of desire, sin and
redemption, questioning whether it's possible, let alone prudent,
to separate the art from the artist. It examines the fault lines in
both religious and secular society, from the AIDS crisis and the
struggle for women's ordination in the 1980s to the culture wars of
today. Richly comic and deeply compassionate, The Choice is a
remarkable synthesis of the sacred and profane. "At a time when
British fiction has never been more timorous about tackling novels
of ideas, Michael Arditti has produced one worthy of Iris Murdoch
and Graham Greene. Brilliantly ambiguous, waspishly witty and
thoroughly enjoyable, this is Michael Arditti's own masterpiece to
date" AMANDA CRAIG
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