Early on in Ana Kinsella’s debut novel, one of the principals, John Reddan, asks the other, Frida Slattery, ‘What are you looking for?’ Frida replies, ‘The statue of Mary. There’s always one. Haven’t you noticed?’ This exchange illustrates the book’s near-contemporary Irish setting as well as its position: looking askance at a no-longer-hegemonic Catholic Church yet looking for its resonances all the same.