Profound River, The

In fifteenth-century England, ninety-five-year-old prioress Dame Juliana Berners recalls her extraordinary life—as a noblewoman, huntress, falconer, and finally the woman who would document fly fishing for the first time in English. Structured around the eight canonical hours of a single day's prayer, this contemplative historical novel weaves memory, faith, angling lore, and a tense struggle to save Sopwell Priory from a grasping abbot. A meditation on reflection, love, loss, and finding one's true vocation.

• The untold story of the woman who invented fly fishing—and was the first woman ever published in English
• A rare novel that braids medieval monastic prayer, angling craft, and Wars-of-the-Roses political intrigue
• Structured like a day of Benedictine prayer, it reads as both novel and meditation
• A strong, sharp-tongued heroine who chooses purpose over a duke's love and a place at court

“But I found that when I write down what happens, it becomes real.”

Perfect for a literary-minded adult who loves richly researched historical fiction, fly fishing, or medieval monastic and contemplative life, and doesn't mind a slow, reflective, deeply Catholic narrative.