A rogue order of nuns, tucked away in Humboldt County, are raising an abandoned deity on the down-low. Persecuted by the patriarchs of the Great Church and decimated by a plague of prayer eaters, The Sisterhood is on the verge of extinction when a white monkey appears in a snowstorm and makes a special delivery. It is a holy night like no other—complete with a wandering star, three disreputable magi, and a babe mangered in a cardboard box. Scandal alert! The endangered infant is the illegitimate offspring of two misbehaving Gods—one parent very married to her divine Hindu husband, the other a famous bachelor Jew with a tendency to covet his neighbor's consort. The mere existence of the misbegotten is a provocation. In celestial realms, the reputations of celebrity A-list Gods are at stake. On Earth, the undocumented deity is a threat to the birdmen of the Great Church—the Cardinals, Hooded Crow, Cloistered Ravens, and gay Budgies, plus a malevolent Cassowary and an ancient Hierophant: His Holiness, the Divine Mallard of All Mysteries. Luckily, a white monkey with impeccable spiritual credentials has broken out of bounds and jumped into this world! Expect literary enchantment: ...a hotbed of heresies ...a feminist insurgency ...a divine comedy. Expect his dark materials to be given a radical do-over when the Godma applies her light. ***** "WHITE MONKEY CHRONICLES shows author Isabella Ides to be a self-assured, equal-opportunity paradigm demolition expert. Storming entrenched temples of orthodoxy, shattering icons, upending conventions—the eponymous monkey blinks his eyes and worlds collide. But it's in the reconstruction that the story wins our hearts. When bohemian Sister Merry Berry fires up her pink 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz convertible, top down, in preparation for heavenly ascent, readers will aspire to hitch a ride, relishing the mind-expanding experience the transit has in store." Alexandra Bonifield, CriticalRant.com, NEA/Annenberg and O'Neill Critics Institute Fellow