Conflict of celibacy and love in Anne’s new novel

Twenty years ago, when Anne McCabe was working as a producer/director with RTÉ, she was involved in seeking funding for a film project featuring Brendan Gleeson. Although she didn’t realise it at the time, Anne was stressed. But a friend did notice and advised her to take time out in a monastery.

Anne went, reluctantly, and loved it.

“You were welcomed in and no questions asked. You could engage with as little or as much as you wanted of Vespers and Mass,” she explains, adding that for her, the break from phones and TVs was utterly restorative.

But, even on retreat, Anne’s journalistic instinct remained alert – she was curious about this way of life. And that curiosity has led to her latest book, So Much at One, which will be launched this Friday night in Monroe’s in Galway City.

It’s a story of loss and longing in a world of celibacy – told from different perspectives.

“I started asking questions of some of the monks, wondering how they could have given up life to stay in this place and pray seven times a day,” she recalls with a laugh. And Anne became friendly with an older monk who “wasn’t as holy or ascetic as the others, he was a bit of craic”.

That man revealed that he had once fallen in love with a woman but chose his vocation over that love.

“Then I began to think, what about the woman? She had fallen in love with this man, but he had chosen his vocation over her,” says Anne.

From that, her story grew.

Aoife, the female character in So Much at One has come to an enclosed monastery, seeking refuge and guidance, escaping from a dysfunctional relationship and problems with addiction. Michael, the monk who becomes her spiritual guide doesn’t expect to fall in love with her but that’s what happens.

“They fall in love and ironically, she finds faith while he loses his,” explains their creator. But life isn’t simple and that’s just part one, she adds with a laugh.

Several years later, Michael is still in the monastery but disillusioned and decides to go and look for Aoife.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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