The Divine Economy of Salvation

In a startling debut, celebrated poet Priscila Uppal crafts a deeply moving, dark and suspenseful tale about the crimes of youth that haunt adult life.

As an adolescent girl, in the face of her mother’s declining health, Angela H. is sent away to a Catholic boarding school. Feeling lonely and neglected, Angela finds comfort and rebellion with a group of girls who call themselves The Sisterhood. On the verge of becoming women, the girls taunt and tempt each other with their budding sexuality. But Angela’s festering sadness and frustration find a shocking target when the rituals of The Sisterhood take a violent turn at the initiation of Angelic Bella.

Tormented by her past, Angela seeks refuge in a religious life, hiding herself in the sheltered world of a convent. Now,
twenty-five years later, evidence of Bella’s death has emerged, threatening to shatter the safety of Angela’s existence. As she agonizes over who might wish to reveal her, Angela confronts her acute guilt over Bella and her grief at the loss of her mother, questioning the nature of her own faith and wondering whether the sins of the past can ever be redeemed.

The Divine Economy of Salvation introduces a remarkably assured and sophisticated voice. Priscila Uppal captures the innocence and cruelty of adolescence, and takes us inside the rarely explored and shadowy world of female religious life.