An Uncertain Age

"Where was my real soul mate, I wanted to know, and why were there no twitchy children on my lap, and how had I been so dumb to believe that beauty’s currency would never run out? So, Paris…." Justine’s life is uncertain when she meets Miles Peabody on the Eurostar. She has lost her job, her fiancé, everything except her dream of becoming an artist. Miles Peabody, a retired librarian and beekeeper, has always led a cautious, philosophical life. Now, faced with his mortality, he needs a miracle. Drawn inexplicably to each other, their relationship is tested when Miles invites Justine to join him on a Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage. But before she can answer, Miles goes missing. Desperate to find him, and nudged by the French police, Justine slips into a dark night of the soul. As her radical search turns inward, she begins to explore her faith (or lack of). The love letters of Abélard and Héloïse play a part—as do fractals, the physics of color, and Saint Teresa of Ávila’s excruciating visions. Also a rare, gnostic book, Secrets of the Epinoia, which is as elusive as its owner. Helping Justine unravel the mystery of Miles are two women: Gwynneth, a lapsed Anglican, and Dara, a devout Hindu housekeeper (whose intentions Justine prays are good). Their cloistered world is turned upside-down when a charismatic visitor appears with the keys to Miles’s past. Haunted by questions of truth, betrayal, and loss, it seems they are all connected in an unlikely, even mystical way—whether in France or Spain, England, or far-off places around the globe. An Uncertain Age by Ulrica Hume is a quirky, interfaith novel about astonishing grace, and longing in all its forms.