Thought for the Day: Desert Experience 2

. . . In the desert I realized that there is something hideous,

especially to a contemporary Western sensibility, 

about a systematic and determined attempt

 to break down, or thin out, the boundaries of the self 

and become open to, participate in, the undefined, 

illimitable freedom of the divine. It is also very hard work.

~ Sara Maitland, from A Book of Silence

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Sara Maitland writes both fiction, including short stories, and non-fiction books about religion (she is Roman Catholic). Her newest nonfiction work is Stations of the Cross (Continuum, 2009) with painter Chris Gollon. Her most recent work of fiction is Far North (The Maia Press, 2008). Her Daughter of Jerusalem (Blond and Briggs) received the 1978 Somerset Maugham Award. Maitland is included in the anthology When It Changed: 'Real Science' Science Fiction (Carcanet Press, Ltd.), to be released April 1.

Maitland lives on an isolated moor in northern Galloway. Additional information about the author, including her commission to write a book for Granta Books, is here.

A Book of Silence (Counterpoint Press, 2008) is among the books on my bedside reading table. I recommend it.