A Sunday Times Book of the Year (December 2025)

A Press Association Book of the Year (December 2025)

'Beautifully written, you will be drawn into the claustrophobic world of the mere, where sinners fear the retribution of both God and the devil'
- Laura Shepherd-Robinson, bestselling author of The Square of Sevens

‘Haunting and beautiful . . . Even in Mere's brutality, there is a rare tenderness to be found’
- Lucy Rose, bestselling author of The Lamb

Norfolk, AD 990. Deep in the Fens, an order of holy sisters lives in quiet isolation, cut off from the outside world by a treacherous marsh known as the mere. Convent healer Hilda and her fellow nuns follow God’s path under the steely guidance of their abbess.

But when a young servant boy goes missing in the marsh, rumour and division spread like wildfire through the community and the abbess's grip falters. Where is the boy? Who took him? Why can he not be found?

Then, newly arrived Sister Wulfrun has a vision: a curse is upon them and change must be brought. As the convent is swept up in a fight for its very survival, Hilda finds herself caught in her own battle between her conscience and her growing feelings for the enigmatic Wulfrun . . .

‘A forbidden and passionate love story which held me captivated to the last page’
- Anya Bergman, author of The Witches of Vardo

"Danielle Giles’s first novel conjures up the early medieval world with startling richness and intensity" - Sunday Times

"A meticulously told story, Mere is a brilliant read" - Press Association

"With lyrical prose that simmers with imagers, Giles blurs the boundaries between the natural world and the unnatural" - Belfast Telegraph

"A medieval Orange Is The New Black. It’s haunting and heartrending as well as life-affirming" - Mail on Sunday

"Giles's memorably distinct and atmospheric debut is . . . laced with Dark-Age eeriness" - Daily Mail

"Danielle Giles is ahead of her time in nun-fiction . . . this debut author has a rare talent for being able to transport the reader so immersively" - Debut Digest

"Mere very quickly pulls you, unflinchingly, into the captivating and claustrophobic world of the crumbling convent in which it’s set" - Press Association