A Private Man

‘A thrilling love story of intellect and passion’ The Observer, best debut novelists of 2026

De: Stephanie Sy-Quia

Narrado por: John Sackville

Set in mid-century Rome and England, this forbidden slow-burn love story will take your breath away

'A truly impressive debut novel, one I could see appearing on the Booker longlist' – The Sunday Times
'It’s a rare pleasure to read this novel' - Sarah Moss

Rome, 1953. David is young, handsome, charismatic and sworn to celibacy. He is freshly ordained, and about to return to England to begin life as a priest. Devotion to God is all he’s ever known.

In London, Margaret is entangled in an impossible love affair. Committed to living on her own terms without sacrificing her faith, she becomes drawn to a women’s movement challenging the archaic rules of the Church.

When their lives are thrown together at a Catholic college in a quiet village, an undeniable connection forms between them.

Stephanie Sy-Quia’s A Private Man is a stunning story of devotion and sacrifice, and of the consequences of our actions that ripple throughout generations.

READERS LOVE A PRIVATE MAN
‘Lives and breathes along with you as you read’
‘Radiating warmth, tinged by inevitable sadness. I loved it’
‘Beautifully written and deeply moving’
‘A work of quiet power that leaves you bereft at its end’
‘I just love everything about this book’

Reseñas de la Crítica

Lush, evocative and sexy . . . A truly impressive debut novel, one I could see appearing on the Booker longlist (The Sunday Times)

A deft work of fiction . . . Sy-Quia is wonderfully interested in beauty, conveying it with a poet’s gift for compression and echo . . . A novel stiff with tension, with sorrow, fear and disappointment wound into its most ecstatic and transcendent moments (Alex Clark, The Observer)

I loved A Private Man. Sy-Quia writes beautifully and energetically about faith and food and clothes and sex. Her prose embraces beauty and her characters are complex and compelling. It’s a rare pleasure to read this novel (Sarah Moss, author of Ripeness)

A rich, elegant and textured novel full of quiet, beautiful revolutions, which sparks with erotic friction. A Private Man is a brilliant debut about secrets and belief, about the collision of lives, and about the liberation of being remade (Seán Hewitt, author of Open, Heaven)

A Private Man is a warm, tender novel, written with such beauty and precision that it frequently stopped me in my tracks. I read it slowly, carefully, marvelling at an image, savouring each glint and turn (Alex Hyde, author of Violets)

Beautiful . . . A story of slow-burn romance, but also of hard-won friendship, the novel explores faith, duty and love. I couldn't put it down. ('Best books of 2026', The Independent)

A finely crafted story, recognisably written by a poet, with a crystal-clear trajectory and moral position

Finely wrought . . . A heady brew, serious and ruminative yet pulsing with sensuality

A luminous, deeply thoughtful and moving love story. Breathtakingly honest and true on sex, on art, on the analogy between religious and corporeal pleasure, A Private Man is also a meditation on care, faith, doubt and loss. A beautiful and wise novel (Luke Kennard, author of The Answer to Everything)

A Private Man is truly outstanding: clever, passionate and as clean as a bone (Melissa Harrison, author of All Among the Barley)

Stephanie Sy-Quia's novel takes the truly singular story of a truly singular soul and makes it into something approachable, understandable and familiar. This is a novel brimming with empathy, tenderness and wisdom (Aidan Cottrell-Boyce, author of The End of Nightwork)

A thrilling true tale . . . A love story of intellect and passion