Introduction

Recommended by Adriana Trigiani on Jenna Bush Hager's Open Book with Jenna podcast

A Town & Country Must-Read Book of Summer 2025

When prize-winning reporter Sybilla Sumner checks into a monastery for a silent retreat, romance is the last thing on her mind. She plans to spend five meditative days surrounded by the beauty of the Shenandoah Valley—and apart from her famous husband and their crumbling marriage.

James Fitzmaurice-Kelly isn’t looking for romance either. He’s the Archbishop of Dublin, and has maintained a vow of celibacy for decades—even as he’s publicly questioned the church’s teachings. But as Sybilla and Fitz continue silently crossing paths, an undeniable charge builds between them, one that could see them abandoning their vows.

In this sophisticated, sexy, and soulful love story, novelist Sally Quinn explores the boundary between flesh and spirit, restraint and ecstasy, and asks what we’re willing to sacrifice in the name of passion.

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Excerpt

I recognized him the minute he got out of the car. He was taller than I’d expected. Tall and lanky with an easy, confident grace about him. His salt and pepper hair was thick and curled around the back of his neck. He wore dark glasses so I couldn’t see his eyes, but he cocked his head a bit to look around the property and I saw that firm jaw and half expectant smile on his lips. He was wearing jeans, a blue shirt, a light brown leather jacket, and loafers. Before the driver was able to hand over his hanging bag and satchel, he’d reached into the trunk, retrieved his luggage and a guitar case, and started toward the entrance of the retreat house. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

From the publisher:

1. Silent Retreat is set at a weeklong silent retreat at a monastery in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. Would you ever go on a silent retreat? Why or why not?

2. In the book, James Fitzmaurice-Kelly (Fitz), the Archbishop of Dublin, writes a bestselling book arguing that Catholic priests’ vow of celibacy is hypocritical, unchristian, and keeps good men from becoming priests. Do you think a priest falling in love is sinful? Do you think the Catholic Church will ever question the wisdom of the vow of celibacy and let married men (or women) become priests?

3. Talk about Sybilla and Spraig’s marriage. What would you have done if you were in Sybilla’s situation?

4. Fitz tells Father John that he was profoundly affected by the mysticism of the Irish poet William Butler Yeats and the theologian Thomas Merton’s teachings on love. Sybilla discusses her and her Maman’s interest in psychics, tarot card readers, and mediums, and her research on the mythology of unicorns. Do you think these interests are contradictory to organized religion? Why or why not?

5. Discuss Dierdre and Fitz’s relationship, and also Sybilla and Fitz’s.

6. Fitz finds God in his music; Sybilla in the nature of the Greek island of Spetses. What practices or places in your life do you find spiritual?

7. Discuss the ending of the book. Where do you think Sybilla and Fitz will be in five years?

Weblinks

»	Sally Quinn's website
»	Profile in The Washingtonian
»	In Conversation with Maureen Down at Politics & Prose
»	Book Review in Air Mail

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