Elizabeth Cunningham Books In Order

Daughter of the Shining Isles

‘Smart and earthy…
richly imaginative…
the epitome of the storyteller’s art.’ St. Louis Post Dispatch chosen as one of ‘The Year’s Best Books’

‘This amazing book could well become a classic of women’s literature.’ Booklist chosen as one of the ‘Year’s Ten Best Fantasy Books’

Young Magdalen and Jesus, brim*ming with youthful charm and arrogance, find each other and fall in love, forging a bond that is stronger than death. Their pleasure is overshadowed by a brilliant but unbalanced druid who knows a perilous secret about Maeve’s past. The prequel to The Passion of Mary Magdalen.

The Passion of Mary Magdalen

The best one yet! Catherine MacCoun, author of On Becoming an Alchemist

‘As usual, Cunningham provides plenty of juicy controversy embodied by vivid characters and expressed in vigorous action, all in crisply drawn biblical settings.’ Booklist

‘Gleefully iconoclastic. For that dwindling demographic with a sense of humor about religion, Maeve’s profane skewering of the all too human foibles of the Church fathers is a hoot.’ Kirkus Reiews

‘‘Elizabeth Cunningham has again delved into her fabulous treasure trove of impeccable research, and come up with gold. In Bright Dark Madonna, her interweaving of Biblical Celtic themes brings the first century to life with unexpected freshness and many surprises.’ Katherine Neville, author of The Eight and The Fire

After playing an intimate role in the mystery of the Resurrection, what is left for Maeve, the Celtic Mary Magdalen? Never a follower, will she emerge as a leader of the early church? Will she retire quietly to mother a sacred bloodline? Will she set sail for France to proselytize and go spelunking? The answer: all and none of the above. No sooner does Maeve open her mouth to preach the gospel her way than a fierce debate begins about what to do with the child she is carrying. Maeve has her own ideas about where best to raise the savior s scion. When she returns to Temple Magdalen, the holy who*rehouse she founded, a custody battle of biblical proportions ensues. Maeve, her infant daughter Sara, and Jesus mother flee to the remote Taurus Mountains where they live in hiding among the Galatians until a mysterious man is dumped on their doorstep more dead than alive. When Maeve discovers the identity of the man she has healed, she is appalled and determined to keep her family s secret. But Maeve has reckoned without the will of her brilliant, angry adolescent daughter who resolves to find out the truth about her father for herself.

Required reading for fans and accesible to those new to The Maeve Chronicles, Bright Dark Madonna takes the reader on a breathtaking journey from the temple porticoes of Jerusalem, to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, to the south of France, and, as always, to the treacherous, beautiful terrain of the human heart.

Bright Dark Madonna

The best one yet! Catherine MacCoun, author of On Becoming an Alchemist

‘As usual, Cunningham provides plenty of juicy controversy embodied by vivid characters and expressed in vigorous action, all in crisply drawn biblical settings.’ Booklist

‘Gleefully iconoclastic. For that dwindling demographic with a sense of humor about religion, Maeve’s profane skewering of the all too human foibles of the Church fathers is a hoot.’ Kirkus Reiews

‘‘Elizabeth Cunningham has again delved into her fabulous treasure trove of impeccable research, and come up with gold. In Bright Dark Madonna, her interweaving of Biblical Celtic themes brings the first century to life with unexpected freshness and many surprises.’ Katherine Neville, author of The Eight and The Fire

After playing an intimate role in the mystery of the Resurrection, what is left for Maeve, the Celtic Mary Magdalen? Never a follower, will she emerge as a leader of the early church? Will she retire quietly to mother a sacred bloodline? Will she set sail for France to proselytize and go spelunking? The answer: all and none of the above. No sooner does Maeve open her mouth to preach the gospel her way than a fierce debate begins about what to do with the child she is carrying. Maeve has her own ideas about where best to raise the savior s scion. When she returns to Temple Magdalen, the holy who*rehouse she founded, a custody battle of biblical proportions ensues. Maeve, her infant daughter Sara, and Jesus mother flee to the remote Taurus Mountains where they live in hiding among the Galatians until a mysterious man is dumped on their doorstep more dead than alive. When Maeve discovers the identity of the man she has healed, she is appalled and determined to keep her family s secret. But Maeve has reckoned without the will of her brilliant, angry adolescent daughter who resolves to find out the truth about her father for herself.

Required reading for fans and accesible to those new to The Maeve Chronicles, Bright Dark Madonna takes the reader on a breathtaking journey from the temple porticoes of Jerusalem, to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, to the south of France, and, as always, to the treacherous, beautiful terrain of the human heart.

The Return of the Goddess

In the tradition of Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon, this extraordinary novel describes the sudden reappearance of the erotic pagan goddess in the unlikely hands of an Episcopal minister’s wife. Set in the atmospheric Hudson River Valley, the book tells the story of Esther Peters, who fashions an image out of Playdoh that will effectively transform her life and the lives of all around her. Spencer Crowe is a childless widow, bedridden and beset by greedy relations who lust to inherit Blackwood, her overgrown but valuable estate. Marvin Greene is an African American poker playing, tarot reading, ex convict, who recognizes the Lady as Luck and follows her surprising lead. And Fergus Hanrahan is the mysterious estate keeper who is connected to the enchantment of Blackwood. The full force of erotic love, the tension between paganism and Christianity, and the depiction of the feminine as the preserver of the earth all resonate in this powerful work of magic realism. Cunningham’s contemporary treatment of the popular goddess theme is unique in present day fiction, and her powers of storytelling make this a book that will speak to myriad readers, both male and female.

The Wild Mother

Acclaimed for its deft blending of fantasy, psychology, and archetype, The Wild Mother is a brilliant depiction of the Wild Woman and those who would enslave her out of fear. Its protagonist is Lilith, predecessor of Eve who fled Eden for the woman inhabited wilderness called the Empty Land. While returning to our own world to claim the 10 year old daughter she was forced to abandon, Lilith is taken prisoner by Adam Underwood, the child’s father. Her liberation by two others Adam has enslaved his blindly devoted colleague, Eva, and his still spirited mother forms the crux of this powerful reinterpretation of the myth of female destiny.

How to Spin Gold

First paperback edition of this modern transformtion of the Rumpelstiltskin fairytale. Written as the autobiography of a mysteriously deformed girl who runs away from her medieval village and becomes the apprentice and successor to ‘The Wise Woman of the Western Woods,’ the book blends magical realism and psychological wisdom.