The Rest is Silence

A monastery is dying.

Brother Columba and his frail Abbot face the task of having to leave the rural sanctuary that has been home to an order of monks since its foundation to live in a care home in inner-city London.

Columba fills his spare time by writing, going over his life journey as a wayward young man who dramatically ended up in a contemplative community in rural Dorset. He also meditates on his corning of age in an idyllic coastal Australian hamlet and the potentially shocking circumstances of his arrival at the monastery. But does he have the strength to confront the truth?

A local priest is surprised to be given Columba's abandoned papers and sets about trying to put them in order. In doing so, he finds himself confronted by the challenges of living faithfully in a rapidly changing environment.

The Rest is Silence is, according to the priest-editor, a chronicle of 'something of the dying landscape of the Church of England in the early part of the twenty-first century.'

Kevin Scully is the author of the novel Harbour Glimpses, as well as a range of religious non-fiction, drama and poetry.