The Breath of Peace
The story jumps right into the middle of a marriage in crisis. William, a former monk, and Madeleine, a woman wise in herbs and healing and practical matters, have been married one year and are at an impasse. Both accustomed to taking charge; they clash over small misunderstandings and ill-chosen words. At first, it seems like petty bickering, and it’s easy to get impatient with their apparently short fuses. Yet as Wilcock unpacks the passions and scars behind the words, we see not just the troubled marriage but individuals contending with the aftermath of trauma and crises of identity.
While the conflict is universal in some ways, the setting is 14th-century Yorkshire, and Wilcock never forgets the medieval context. The couple seems isolated on their farm, but when they reach out for help, it is to the monastery where William had previously lived and where Madeleine’s brother is the new abbot. There we encounter a community with its own history, conflicts, and failures to communicate. William disturbs the peace when he seeks respite there, but he also has skills and experience that can benefit them. As the abbot reorganizes his community, he also listens to William and then to Madeleine. In the end, the solutions for the monastery and for the couple overlap, in a web of spiritual and interpersonal threads.
Part of the Hawk and the Dove series, The Breath of Peace would surely be enriched in the context of the series, but it does not rely on earlier installments for its depth. The author drops a few hints about Madeleine and William’s future, but, in the end, she is less interested in resolving the story than in exploring its rich relationships, both monastic and secular.
