A spellbinding confession of what it means to abandon one life for another, The Devoted asks what it takes, and what you’ll sacrifice, to find enlightenment.
Nicole Hennessy’s life revolves around her Zen practice at the Boston Zendo, seeking solace in the tenets of Buddhism to the chagrin of her Irish Catholic family. After a decade of grueling spiritual practice under her Master’s tutelage, living on a shoestring budget as a shop clerk, Nicole has become dangerously entangled with her mentor. As Nicole confronts her past—a drug-fueled year spent fleeing her family’s loaded silences and guilt-laden "Our Fathers"—and reinvents herself in New York City, her Master’s intoxicating voice pursues her, an electrifying whisper on the other end of the phone. Somehow, he knows everything.
In deft, soaring prose that bristles with psychological and erotic tension, Blair Hurley crafts a thrilling exploration of Nicole’s ecstatic quest for spirituality.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Nicole Hennessy’s life revolves around her Zen practice at the Boston Zendo, seeking solace in the tenets of Buddhism to the chagrin of her Irish Catholic family. After a decade of grueling spiritual practice under her Master’s tutelage, living on a shoestring budget as a shop clerk, Nicole has become dangerously entangled with her mentor. As Nicole confronts her past—a drug-fueled year spent fleeing her family’s loaded silences and guilt-laden "Our Fathers"—and reinvents herself in New York City, her Master’s intoxicating voice pursues her, an electrifying whisper on the other end of the phone. Somehow, he knows everything.
In deft, soaring prose that bristles with psychological and erotic tension, Blair Hurley crafts a thrilling exploration of Nicole’s ecstatic quest for spirituality.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"In this unique, surprising novel, Hurley writes not just with open eyes, but with open mind and open heart, exploring the ways we try to escape from others and from ourselves. The Devoted fearlessly tackles big questions of belief, identity, love, loss, and transformation." - Caitlin Horrocks
"The Devoted is a beautifully written story of the seductions of faith, its many desperations both light and dark. A most absorbing and psychologically astute novel that announces Blair Hurley as a brave new talent." - Chang-Rae Lee
"In Blair Hurley’s beautifully written first novel a young woman charts a spiritual journey into the rigors of Zen Buddhism in a Boston storefront Zendo, under the guidance of a charismatic Master who soon becomes her lover…A suspenseful and warmly engaging coming-of-age story." - Joyce Carol Oates
"In luminous prose, Blair Hurley explores the lines between devotion and entrapment, between the search for self and the attempt to lose oneself entirely. Beneath each measured line is a fiery intelligence. The Devoted is a beautiful debut." - Kirstin Valdez Quade
"Blair Hurley is a gorgeous writer. This novel brims with startling and organic metaphors that fuel, like Zen koans, the heart of a remarkable story. Unlike the Boston films of late, The Devoted gets the accents right." - Anita Shreve
"Blair Hurley’s The Devoted is a thrilling, deep, fun, intense look at sex and faith, at East and West, at fraud and truth, at love and what it means to lose love. A remarkable debut, and more: a great read." - Darin Strauss
"Blair Hurley’s first novel is a sharp-eyed account of the psychological and sexual hold a spiritual ‘master’ can get on a lost young woman. What could have seemed like a fable in other hands, in Hurley’s is mordant and convincing. A spectacular debut!" - Edmund White
"The Devoted is a beautifully written story of the seductions of faith, its many desperations both light and dark. A most absorbing and psychologically astute novel that announces Blair Hurley as a brave new talent." - Chang-Rae Lee
"In Blair Hurley’s beautifully written first novel a young woman charts a spiritual journey into the rigors of Zen Buddhism in a Boston storefront Zendo, under the guidance of a charismatic Master who soon becomes her lover…A suspenseful and warmly engaging coming-of-age story." - Joyce Carol Oates
"In luminous prose, Blair Hurley explores the lines between devotion and entrapment, between the search for self and the attempt to lose oneself entirely. Beneath each measured line is a fiery intelligence. The Devoted is a beautiful debut." - Kirstin Valdez Quade
"Blair Hurley is a gorgeous writer. This novel brims with startling and organic metaphors that fuel, like Zen koans, the heart of a remarkable story. Unlike the Boston films of late, The Devoted gets the accents right." - Anita Shreve
"Blair Hurley’s The Devoted is a thrilling, deep, fun, intense look at sex and faith, at East and West, at fraud and truth, at love and what it means to lose love. A remarkable debut, and more: a great read." - Darin Strauss
"Blair Hurley’s first novel is a sharp-eyed account of the psychological and sexual hold a spiritual ‘master’ can get on a lost young woman. What could have seemed like a fable in other hands, in Hurley’s is mordant and convincing. A spectacular debut!" - Edmund White
Used availability for Blair Hurley's The Devoted