Conville & Walsh

An exquisitely written novel of the meeting of east and west, of religious ideals under question in the aftermath of Darwin – and of a love that transcends culture, faith – and ultimately tragedy.

Set in Mongolia in 1865, THE NAKED NAME OF LOVE tells the story of Joseph, a young Jesuit priest, who sets out on a quest to discover and bring back rare plants for the British Museum. His jouney takes place against the background of the nineteenth century in the grip of an intellectual revolution as science and evolution begin to sweep aside old certainties. Travelling across the Eastern Steppes, often cold, often hungry and frequently in danger from roving bandits, Joseph is laid up for the winter through injury. And here, forced to confront alternative beliefs, he feels himself torn in different directions – by the requirements of his faith on the one hand, and by the stirring of an emotion entirely new to him on the other. Joseph’s journey will ultimately take him every bit as much inwards to his soul as it does to the heart of this unknown world.

THE NAKED NAME OF LOVE is a novel on an epic scale, but it is also astonishingly intimate. A story of friendship between men, and of friendship and love between a man and a woman, it draws the reader in personally as well as offering the grand epic sweep of landscape and history. Writers as talented as Sanjida O’Connell do not come along very often.