Aelred’s Sin

Robert de la Borde comes from the Caribbean to England in the 1980’s after hearing that his brother, Jean Marc, has died. In Bristol, his brother’s journals prompt Robert to visit the Ashton Park Monastery, which Jean Marc entered in the 1960’s as Brother Aelred. There Robert pieces together Jean Marc’s life, his exuberance, his mental suffering, and his struggle to balance his sexual impulses with his love of God. As Robert is forced to question his inherited prejudices, what unfolds is a story about the triumph of compassion over brutality. Moving from present to past, from cruelty to sympathy, Aelred’s Sin is a powerful new novel of erotic love, spiritual awakening and above all, reconciliation.