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By Faith Divided is Margaret Allan's Scottish 17th century novel, set in the Lowlands during the period of conflict between the Covenanters and the Catholic and Episcopal communities. The protagonist is a young Catholic woman whose family has been quietly maintaining their faith and whose marriage prospects become a political problem.
Allan handles the religious-history material with the kind of careful research her prehistoric novels also display. The historical texture is the pleasure: the food, the linen production, the small daily compromises of life in a religious-divided community. The plot is the standard historical-romance shape.
Three stars. Recommended to readers who like Scottish historical fiction with serious period weight. Not Allan's strongest book but a confident piece of historical writing.
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