Leslie Howard - The Celestial Wife

The Author Archive Podcast

05-04-2024 • 19 mins

This novel is set in the 1960s with a backdrop of The Beatles and other music of the time.

It tells the story of Daisy Shoemaker who is 15 in 1964. She was born into a fundamentalist Mormon community on the US - Canada border.

In a ceremony called Placement she is given as a teenage wife to a much older man. She finds this intolerable and runs away.

The church official who makes the decisions is known as Bishop and he assures his followers that he has a direct line to God. Amazingly they believe him.

It's a gripping and enraging read. It's fiction but events like the book describes are still happening today. The fundamentalist cult is vey much alive and well.

There is a Netflix documentary about the group .. Keep Sweet : Pray and Obey.