Synopsis
An Observer Best Debut Novelist of 2026
'A truly impressive debut novel, one I could see appearing on the Booker longlist' The Sunday Times
'I couldn't put it down' - The Independent
'Thrilling' - The Observer
'It’s a rare pleasure to read this novel' - Sarah Moss
'A rich, elegant and textured novel . . . brilliant' - Seán Hewitt
'Truly Outstanding' - Melissa Harrison
'Pulsing with sensuality' - Daily Mail
An exquisite slow-burn forbidden love story, laced with passion and faith.
Rome, 1953. David is young, handsome, charismatic and sworn to celibacy. He is freshly ordained, and about to return to England to begin life as a priest. Devotion to God is all he’s ever known.
In London, Margaret is entangled in an impossible love affair. Committed to living on her own terms without sacrificing her faith, she becomes drawn to a women’s movement challenging the archaic rules of the Church.
When their lives are thrown together at a Catholic college in a quiet village, an undeniable connection forms between them. And so begins a story of forbidden love, sacrifice and secrets, with consequences that will reverberate across the generations.
Stephanie Sy-Quia’s A Private Man is a stunning story of devotion and sacrifice, and of the consequences of our actions that ripple throughout generations.
Details
19 February 2026
9781035052653Reviews
Lush, evocative and sexy . . . A truly impressive debut novel, one I could see appearing on the Booker longlist
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
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
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
