A Book of Common Prayer

An engrossing examination of political and personal life in Central America | from the award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking. Writing with the economical swiftness and concentrated perception that has made her one of America’s most distinguished writers | Joan Didion creates a gleaming novel of innocence and evil.Set in the ruined Central American nation of Boca Grande | A Book of Common Prayer is the story of two American women and their conflicting experiences of wealth | politics and personal history. We follow the intriguing life of Grace Strasser-Mendana – an American expatriate and member of one of Boca Grande’s most influential families – alongside the story of Charlotte Douglas | whose daughter Medin has run off with a group of Marxist radicals. What follows is an exploration of the women’s ability to make sense of the behaviour that surrounds them | as their worlds are made hazy by the atmosphere of evil and innocence that envelops their strained and entangled lives.Writing with her inimitable mix of candid emotional frankness and razor-sharp political astuteness | Joan Didion’s third novel is at once utterly particular whilst emblematic of an age of unscrupulous authority and seemingly inevitable bloodshed.