Silent Retreat: A Novel

Celebrated reporter, Washington insider, and bestselling author Sally Quinn returns with a riveting tale of forbidden desire and spiritual reckoning.

Sally Quinn, acclaimed Washington Post journalist, bestselling author, and cofounder with historian and author Jon Meacham of The Washington Post’s On Faith website, is known for sparking national conversations around politics, spirituality, and love. In her latest novel Silent Retreat, Quinn presents listeners with a vivid and provocative love story that walks the electric tightrope between faith and sensuality, restraint and ecstasy, duty and longing. When prize-winning reporter Sybilla Sumner checks into a monastery for a silent retreat, romance is the last thing on her mind. Seeking solace amid the rolling hills of the Shenandoah Valley, she hopes to find clarity away from the pressures of her crumbling marriage and high-profile life. Across the monastery’s quiet halls, Archbishop James Fitzmaurice Kelly is battling his own inner turmoil. A man of deep conviction and unwavering faith, he has spent decades honoring his vow of celibacy—even as he questions the very institutions he serves. But when their paths cross in silence, the unspoken connection between them ignites into something neither expected nor could resist. A mesmerizing blend of passion, intellect, and spiritual exploration, Silent Retreat is a novel that dares to ask what we sacrifice in the name of devotion—and what we risk when we follow the call of the heart.

© 2025 Simon & Schuster Audio (Audiobook): 9781668154748

Release date

Audiobook: 3 June 2025