Penelope Lively 
Judgment Day 

This “beautiful and brilliant novel” follows an agnostic woman’s relationship with a religious village’s people and its past (Auberon Waugh).  Judgment Day takes us into the life of Clare Paling, who has just moved with her family to Laddenham, a sleepy village enlivened only by sideshows of adultery and gossip. An avowed agnostic, Clare is nonetheless caught up in the restoration of the church, even inciting the villagers to put on a pageant that recreates the church’s dark history.   With flawless precision, Penelope Lively brings the village and its inhabitants to life as an unpardonable death reminds them all that the world is a very uncertain place.   [Lively is] blessed with the gift of being able to render matters of great import with a breath, a barely audible sigh, a touch. The result is wonderful writing.” —The New York Times Book Review