The Doubting Vicar’s Book Club

by Rachel Yarworth

A story of second chances, unlikely friendship, and the hope you find when you’re least expecting it.

After decades serving the little congregation of St Swithin’s, Patrick never expected to find himself doubting… everything. Has he dedicated his life to a lost cause?

Restless and distracted, Patrick wanders into the village pub, where he meets an exhausted carer out for a break and a pink-haired animal activist with a dead phone and nowhere else to be. Something Patrick thought he’d lost begins to stir in him. When a lonely, grieving professor also stumbles in, compassion and curiosity spark an idea: a book club designed to draw the professor out and provide the purpose Patrick craves.

As the pages turn and the seasons change, can these four unlikely friends recover the faith, freedom, connection and hope they‘d all but given up on?

The Doubting Vicar’s Book Club is releasing with Broad Place Publishing in November 2026. Pre-ordering now helps us pay for the production costs and print run. Thank you for your support!

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What do a doubting ex-vicar, an exhausted carer, a young activist, and an angry professor have in common? Not much… until a book club draws them together.

When the words of the Lord’s Prayer abandon Patrick one ordinary Sunday morning, everything he believes about himself unravels. For decades, he has faithfully served the small community of St Swithin’s. Has he given his life to a lost cause?

Anne never expected her world to shrink to the four walls of her mother’s house. Years spent caring have quietly replaced the adventures she once loved, until her sister bundles her out for a single evening off.

The only two customers in their sleepy village pub, Anne and Patrick strike up a conversation, until they’re interrupted by an unlikely arrival: Phoenix, a pink-haired animal activist with a heavy past, a dead phone, and nowhere else to be.

Then a power cut draws Geoffrey through the door. Grieving and angry, he hasn’t spoken to a soul in months, and he’d rather not start now. When the unlikely trio see Geoffrey slip back into his isolated life, compassion and curiosity spark an idea: Could a book club entice the professor back out?

What begins as a kindness to a stranger becomes something no one saw coming. As the pages turn and the seasons change, these four strangers discover that the things they thought they’d lost – faith, freedom, connection and hope – might not be gone after all. And that the family we stumble into by accident can be exactly the one we needed all along.

A cozy, uplifting novel set in contemporary England about doubt and belief, grief and healing, friendship, and the quiet hope that finds us when we’re least expecting it.

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