How can one live the fullness of one’s faith in these modern, disenchanted times? How can one accept the archaism of religious practices whose meaning may sometimes seem ethereal? The young narrator of A Renewal wonders about all this and more with a subtle blend of humor and solemnity. Living her experience of faith at weekly Sunday Mass, she wonders about the ages-old Christian rites that surround her, perceiving her own beliefs not as a form of willful blindness, but rather as a tenacious enigma. Through the tale of her trips to Church, her observations shaded with humor about Mass and the social life of a community of believers, Sophie Divry manages to paint a subtle portrait of Christianity today, through a narrative that is both personal and universal. With an understated style that switches gracefully between tones, she addresses the Western unconscious, which can’t help thinking of religious fervor as something shrouded in archaism, yet can’t quite let go of it, either. Far from historical or moral considerations about religious practices, A Renewal is an intimate, clever, stimulating and poetic exploration of a personal enigma. Faith becomes mystery once again.

A subtle meditation about faith and the meaning of religious practices by the author of La Côte 400, sold in England (published as The Library of Unrequited Love), Italy, Spain and Sweden.