A Private Man traces the slow-burn love story between a Catholic priest and a progressive theology teacher across Rome and England during the twentieth century.
Mark your calendars, LitStackers! A Private Man by Stephanie Sy-Quia is in presale (the best time to buy a book), and ready to hit the bookshelf on Apr 14, 2026. Our anticipation is palpable. Published by Grove Press | Grove/Atlantic Inc., this novel is already making waves with early readers. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s on the cover from the publisher’s official description to early reviews that will help you pre-order your copy ASAP. Let’s dive in!
In This Spotlight On A Private Man
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About A Private Man
It’s the 1960s, and David is handsome, charismatic, and sworn to celibacy. An exemplary Catholic priest, devotion to God is all he’s ever known, and all he ever thinks he will. In London, Margaret is adrift, healing from the loss of her parents and the end of a recent love affair. Increasingly drawn to the church, she sets out to join the new revolutions of sex and faith, taking up a teaching position at an all-girls school in David’s diocese.
Decades later, Margaret is being cared for by her grandson, who has just discovered the strange truth of his family history. So begins the story of forbidden love and ardent faith, devotion and sacrifice, as the consequences of David and Margaret’s unlikely union play out across generations. A first novel from an award-winning poet, A Private Man traces the exquisite love of two brilliant characters caught between passion and piety as they seek to usher the church they cherish into a more progressive era.
Praise for A Private Man
“Stephanie Sy-Quia was 16 when she learned about her family’s remarkable past . . . Years later, after university, she went to France to care for her grandmother . . . The result is A Private Man, a fictionalisation of this thrilling true tale. It is a love story of intellect and passion, and a treatise on the repercussions of Catholicism’s lack of willingness to modernise, particularly in terms of gender.”—The Observer, “The Best Debut Novelists of 2026”
“A lush, evocative, and sexy narrative about old age, duty, passion, and theology . . . A truly impressive debut novel, one I could see appearing on the Booker longlist, and which I’ll want to read and reread in the years to come.”—Sunday Times
“Religious belief is something novelists seem curious about once again, especially when it rubs up against sex and desire. The British-American poet Stephanie Sy-Quia’s sensitive first novel, A Private Man, draws on the true story of her grandfather, a Catholic priest.”—New Statesman, “The Best Fiction to Read This Year”
“A Private Man seeps easily into your bloodstream, full of people you long to know, its theological geography mapped with affection and wit. With timelines that shift like weather, the novel is a smooth stone skimming the surface of a pond—then the light changes, and it becomes a carved chalice lit by fire. This one’s going to stick for a while.”—Leif Enger, author of I Cheerfully Refuse
“I loved A Private Man. Sy-Quia writes beautifully and energetically about faith and food and clothes and sex. Her prose embraces beauty and her characters are complex and compelling. It’s a rare pleasure to read this novel.”—Sarah Moss, author of Ripeness
“A luminous, deeply thoughtful and moving love story. Breathtakingly honest and true on sex, on art, on the analogy between religious and corporeal pleasure, A Private Man is also a meditation on care, faith, doubt and loss. A beautiful and wise novel. It’s so rare to read something this deep that’s also such a page-turner.”—Luke Kennard, author of The Answer to Everything
“A Private Man is truly outstanding: clever, passionate and as clean as a bone.”—Melissa Harrison, author of All Among the Barley
“A rich, elegant and textured novel full of quiet, beautiful revolutions, which sparks with erotic friction. A Private Man is a brilliant debut about secrets and belief, about the collision of lives, and about the liberation of being remade.”—Seán Hewitt, author of Open, Heaven
“A Private Man is a warm, tender novel, written with such beauty and precision that it frequently stopped me in my tracks. I read it slowly, carefully, marvelling at an image, savouring each glint and turn.”—Alex Hyde, author of Violets
“Stephanie Sy-Quia’s novel takes the truly singular story of a truly singular soul and makes it into something approachable, understandable and familiar. This is a novel brimming with empathy, tenderness and wisdom.”—Aidan Cottrell-Boyce, author of The End of Nightwork
About Stephanie Sy-Quia, Author of A Private Man
Stephanie Sy-Quia was born in California in 1995 and is based in London. Her writing and criticism have been published in The Guardian, The White Review, The Boston Review, Granta, and elsewhere. Her debut poetry collection Amnion, published in the UK by Granta Poetry in 2021, received a Somerset Maugham Award and was a Poetry Book Society Winter Recommendation; was longlisted for the Rathbones Folio and RSL Ondaatje Prizes; and won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. She is the recipient of an Eric Gregory Award and is a fourth-generation teacher.
You can connect with Stephanie Sy-Quia on Instagram, and X.
Source: Publisher
Publisher: Grove Press | Grove/Atlantic Inc.
ISBN Hardcover 9780802166906
Pub Date: Apr 14, 2026
Other LitStack Spots
We’re always looking out for you, and we have a few other titles we’ve spotted to add to your TBR list, including Amnion by Stephanie Sy-Quia, Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers, and This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud.
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