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The Scent of God: A Memoir by Beryl Singleton Bissell, an autobiographical account of spiritual calling, temporal passion, and conflict of faith by a former nun, originally out from the Perseus Book Group's Counterpoint imprint in 2006. This has favourable quoted reviews from Publishers Weekly and other newspaper outlets.
On the day following her eighteenth birthday, Beryl enters a cloistered convent in New Jersey, believing that God has called her to this way of life. After ten years in the convent—years spent experiencing periods of bliss and others of inner torment—she is called to Puerto Rico to help care for her ailing father. Once there she meets Padre Vittorio, a handsome Italian priest, and discovers that her religious garb cannot protect her from her budding sexuality. For the next three years, as she travels to and from the island, she struggles to reconcile human desire with spiritual longing. Unable to confide in either her mother or abbess, she tries to find the inner freedom that would allow her to love fully. The events that follow take the reader on a dizzying journey into the heart of desire, both spiritual and human.
In spare but lyric language, Bissell weaves a powerful story of love, death, guilt, and redemption—a pilgrimage that reaches beyond dogmas to personal truth and evokes a transformation that changes not only Beryl but the lives of those whom she most loves.