This intriguing fictional memoir of Padre Samuel, a Cistercian monk, weaves together his tumultuous life story with reflections on his life in a monastic community.

Monks have always been a gloriously strange lot, and the monastic vocation attracts people who are quirky, grumpy, often hilarious, and uniquely sensitive to the alluring mystery of God. As the life of Padre Samuel shows, monks strive, through the rigors of community life and the conquering of the “old man” inclined to selfishness, to become saints.

This novel unveils portraits of the various characters, both comedic and tragic, of Presentation Abbey as viewed through the eyes of the elderly Padre Samuel. It brings readers into the silence of the cloister and introduces them to a monk who has allowed his suffering to draw him closer to Christ. The novel is a prayerful testimony to the fierce demands and consoling mercies of the monastic life.

“Scholars and critics have started to wonder if we’re entering into a new Catholic literary Renaissance. Fr. Thomas’s novel is exactly the sort of thing that they’re thinking of!"
—Jason M. Baxter, Director of Center for Beauty and Culture, Benedictine College, and author of The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis and Why Literature Still Matters

"Among those who’ve best captured how imperfect humanity is made holy—Graham Greene, Georges Bernanos—we must now include Fr. Thomas Esposito. Padre Samuel is an elderly monk whose scars and weaknesses are held together by the rhythms of the monastery, of prayer and common life. Far from idyllic holiness or unreal spiritual heroism, Padre Samuel is healed by the slow work of grace. Through prayer, by memory, he experiences what Saint John Paul II called the 'mysterious oneness in time.' A mystical novel, yet utterly human and ordinary, it’s a work of fiction that tells a truth, and that’s how genuine holiness is still possible."
—Fr. Joshua J. Whitfield, author of The Crisis of Bad Preaching and Why Sunday Matters

"In his cleverly structured novel, Fr. Thomas Esposito, O.Cist., invites us into the cloister with humble frankness, capturing the triumphs and foibles of monastic life. Through the affable Padre Samuel, we see living proof that God does not call the perfect, but perfects the called. I finished this delightful novel feeling both edified and inspired—as will every reader who picks it up."
—Fr. Michael Brisson, LC, author of Death in Black and White

"In Blue Miles, Fr. Esposito provides a realistic and unromanticized view of modern monastic life. However, it is the very orderliness of Fr. Samuel’s life, with its attendant sins and struggles, that makes his  story so compelling and so relatable.  In Fr. Samuel and his companions along the way, we are reminded that God’s grace often shows up in the midst of our own brokenness and struggles, especially through the love of friends and the prayers of the church."
—Elisabeth Rain Kincaid, Ph.D., J.D., Director, Institute for Faith and Learning, Associate Professor of Ethics, Faith & Culture, Truett Theological Seminary, Affiliate Professor of Management, Hankamer School of Business

"If Jane Austin and Marcel Proust were to rewrite DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST, you might end up with something like “Blue Miles”—a gently comedic, sharply witty, deeply contemplative spiritual odyssey.  When it comes to depicting the monastic life, Father Esposito gets it exactly right.  He knows the rhythm and the silence of the cloister; but he also knows—and candidly reveals—the petty annoyances and tragic betrayals that occur there.  BLUE MILES may be a work of fiction, but it is the most realistic and moving depiction of monasticism that I have ever read."
—J. Augustine Wetta, O.S.B.

"Every line, every page, of this extraordinary book breathes authenticity, along with the author’s profound understanding of the vagaries of human growth—for monks and laypeople alike, in weakness and strength, in times of discouragement and times of hope. There is wisdom here, both articulated and shining between the lines. The writing is gripping, flawless, seemingly effortless. The form of the novel, the monastic day, is a perfect framework for the central character, Fr. Samuel, to reflect on his long life as he approaches the brink of eternity. A superb achievement!”  
—Michael D. O’Brien