Inchbracken: The Story of a Fama Clamosa

The Disruption of 1843 split the Church of Scotland down the middle, and in Robert Cleland's transporting historical novel, we feel that rupture in the bones of one small parish. Reverend Roderick Brown is a young clergyman of fierce conviction: when he walks from the Established Church, he walks into poverty and uncertainty, dragging his congregation and his sister Mary with him into the bitter unknowns of the Free Church. Mary, steady and practical, holds the household together while her brother grapples with his conscience and his duties. The novel opens with a ferocious storm howling through the glen, a literal and figurative tempest that sets the tone for everything to come. Cleland renders the Highland landscape with granular love, and the intimate drama of the Browns' modest home against the theological upheaval of their moment makes for deeply felt historical fiction. This is a novel for readers who want to feel what it cost to build a church on principle alone.