Father Alberto and the Flying Girl

In a backwater parish somewhere in medieval Europe, new priest Alberto finds himself protecting those deemed insane. Yet Alberto must also contend with the vicious Abbess – and the terrifying Inferral Brethren, with whom he has history . . . Under the reign of the Abbess, the Abbey of Saint Particular imprisons the mad – and therefore godless. Just once a year, on the drunken Feast of the Holy Fool, are the inmates set free for a day. Idealistic Alberto is given the thankless task of returning them to the dungeons once the day is up, but soon starts to see that he could help the ‘fools’ and even learn from them. There is just one who escapes his grasp: the Flying Girl, a silent child who leaps from tree to tree, refusing to speak or stay on the ground. As Alberto grows braver in his defiance of the Abbess, everything comes to a head when the Inferral are called. A terrifying brotherhood of religious inquisition and torture, they are come to rid the parish of evil. The Flying Girl might be caught at last - and Alberto’s unorthodox kindnesses risk him more and more . . . Bold, vivid and blackly funny, Father Alberto and the Flying Girl is a fiercely imaginative story about kindness, society and so-called madness; about getting things wrong - and hope.