The Worst Monk in Omnu

A smart fantasy novel with high stakes but a cosy feel as the opening to a new trilogy from multi-bestseller author Marie Brennan.

Diligence, despite her best intentions, is not a very good monk. When she tries to fast, she faints; when she meditates too long, she falls asleep. No matter what task she is assigned, she will find some way to mess it up. After Diligence accidentally drops the sacred statue of the One-Is-All during a major festival, she has one final hope to avoid being shipped off to the strictest of temples – she can prove her worth by undertaking the most gruelling of pilgrimages, leaving the temple she has called home and travelling far and wide throughout her lands.

In her travels, Diligence comes face-to-face with unquiet spirits, ravaging bandits and, worst of all, her fellow pilgrims, one of whom, a young man called Nish, is definitely more than he first appears. As Diligence encounters a world outside her cloisters, she more and more starts to question the black and white vision of the world she has been taught. Maybe to be truly good, she might have to deviate from the strict paths she’s always been instructed to follow?