Bestowed with the graces. Condemned by a secret. Redeemed by a lie.

Dublin, 1918. Rosaleen The Rose. A seer and a healer. Revered within the Mesmerist circles, she was acclaimed for her gifts of prophecy and healing amongst Dublin’s fashionable society. But the shocking realisation of her last extraordinary prophecy will see her famed throughout the city.

One summer night at Mount St Kilian Abbey, Brother Thomas watches a candlelit procession of pilgrims, come to walk the Way of the Rose on the anniversary of their idol’s death. Now a shrine, the bell tower has seen tragedy – one that others would only whisper of.

Then, a padre arrives at the Abbey and reveals the deathbed confession that Rosaleen Grace made to him three years before. The tragedy of what occurred at the bell tower is well known, but this reveals an even greater horror – a heinous crime to which St. Kilian’s once-beloved Abbot, now imprisoned, has confessed. But the Rose has a different tale to tell.

Never to be spoken of. Never to be revealed. What lies beneath the Rose.

My Review

I absolutely loved The Trial of Lotta Rae and The Graces is just as brilliant. It’s probably more my genre to be honest. Anything that includes mysticism, prophecy, alternative religions, healing, superstition etc is right up my street.

It’s beautifully written, with Rosaleen – The Rose – such an interesting character. She is so young and naive really, and it’s very easy for her to be taken advantage of in the big city of Dublin after a sheltered life in the Co Clare countryside.

The heartbreak is devastating, and brave, the subjects dealt with sympathetically and with compassion. Such tragic circumstances, which had me in tears many times. I can say no more.

Rosaleen’s gift of sight is feared in her village in Clare and her family feels it would be better for her to go to Dublin to live with her aunt and uncle in their guest house. She can work in the house, helping with the light chores. It all works out well until she is introduced to a group of people calling themselves Mesmerists. They believe that illness is caused by blockages to the flow of magnetic fluid in the body and that your own body will cure you. They think that doctors are quacks who are trying to poison you with their snake oil. I couldn’t help but think of anti-vaxxers during Covid. I remember a number of people telling me that your body’s immune system will prevent you from getting ill. But that depends on how ill you really are and how strong your immune system is.

It doesn’t take long before the group realises that Rosaleen has not just the gift of sight, but also of healing. She can lay her hands on people and use their ‘spring’ to heal themselves. Soon she becomes known as The Rose and is revered all over Dublin. But Rosaleen knows too well how things can go wrong in a heartbeat.

This is not a simple tale of happiness and romance – it is one of tragedy and dark secrets. Of unrequited love set against a backdrop of political unrest and the fight between Protestant and Catholic, of being part of the UK or embracing Home Rule. The background politics is quite subtle, but it’s always there.

The Graces is just so good, evocatively crafted, with every wonderful character brought to life. I adored it.

About the Author

Siobhan MacGowan is a journalist and musician who lived and worked in London for much of her life before returning to Ireland several years ago. She is from a family of great storytellers, the most prominent of which is her brother, Shane MacGowan of The Pogues.