Father Alberto and the Flying Girl
a novel
Written by Timothy X Atack
Published by Chatto & Windus, 25th June 2026
In a backwater parish somewhere in medieval Europe, new priest Alberto finds himself protecting those deemed insane. Yet Alberto must also contend with the vicious Abbess – and the terrifying Inferrant Brethren, with whom he has history...
Under the reign of the Abbess, the Abbey of Saint Particular imprisons the mad - and therefore godless. Only once each year are the inmates set free, for a single day, on the drunken Feast of the Holy Fool. Idealistic Alberto is given the thankless task of returning them to the dungeons once the Feast is over, but soon starts to see that he could help the 'fools, and even learn from them.
There is just one who escapes his grasp: the Flying Girl, a mysterious child who leaps from tree to tree, refusing to speak sense or stay on the ground.
As Alberto grows braver in his defiance of the Abbess, everything comes to a head when the Inferral are called. A terrifying brotherhood of religious inquisition and torture, they are come to rid the parish of evil. The Flying Girl must be caught once and for all – and Alberto's unorthodox kindnesses put him more and more at risk...
Bold, vivid and blackly funny, Father Alberto and the Flying Girl is a fiercely imaginative story about kindness, society and so-called madness; about getting things wrong – and hope.
"Profound and strange and utterly original. A book about madness and miracles, faith and pain, human frailty and human kindness - you have to read it to believe it."
RACHEL SEIFFERT, author of Once the Deed is Done
"Father Alberto and the Flying Girl is a story as strange as it is universal, as dark as it is joyous, as hilarious as it is heartfelt: it's a truly special book."
CHRISTOPHER WAKLING, author of Escape and Evasion
"Hilarious, moving, and delightfully weird. A timeless portrait of humanity in its very real darkness, counterbalanced with a passionate sense of hope. I thought it was brilliant."
JO HARKIN, author of The Pretender
"Boldly written, richly physical and brilliantly inventive, Father Alberto and the Flying Girl lets us inhabit a beautiful, cruel medieval world made resplendent with a memorable cast of strange and wondrous characters, both human and animal. A moving and spiritual debut novel."
OISÍN FAGAN, author of Eden's Shore
"I've rarely read anything so vivid and empathetic, so gentle and yet utterly heartbreaking. It's historical fiction with a modern message, but not in a way that feels trite. It's religious but in a firmly human way. And it's about love, but there's no twee romance in sight."
TABITHA STANMORE, author of Cunning Folk
"I was absorbed by every sight and sound on the page. Maybe not since Alan Garner or Peter Ackroyd has a word-dream of the past been conjured with such moving and brilliant magic."
TOM BENN, author of Oxblood
Pre-order here; watch this space for launch event in Bristol, readings, and more...
Enquiries to: Rachel Goldblatt at Curtis Brown.