The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd

Inside the abbey of a Benedictine monastery on Egret Island, just off the coast of South Carolina, resides a beautiful and mysterious chair ornately carved with mermaids and dedicated to a saint, who, legend claims, was a mermaid before her conversion.

The Mermaid Chair is set on a tiny island off the coast of South Carolina, where a monastery has a chair carved with mermaids and dedicated a saint who was supposedly once a mermaid. Jessie Sullivan leaves behind her husband to come back home to this island after her mother's violent and unexplained self-mutilation. Jessie finds herself relieved to be without her husband and also finds herself falling for Brother Thomas, a Benedictine monk about to take his final vows. ~book browse review

About the Author

Sue Monk Kidd was born and raised in the tiny town of Sylvester, Georgia.  Her writing has been deeply influenced by place, and she mined her experiences of growing up in Sylvester as she wrote The Secret Life of Bees, her first novel. 

The Inspiration for The Mermaid Chair The idea for The Mermaid Chair began one day quite unexpectedly. While talking with a friend about her trip to Cornwall, England, she casually mentioned that she’d seen a “mermaid chair” in a small church. She described it as a chair with a mermaid carved on its side which had been in the church for centuries though the reason seemed to be a mystery. Something about this riveted me. I knew right then and there that I would write a novel and it would be called The Mermaid Chair. I didn’t have a clue what it would be about– no characters, no story, nothing- only that the novel would contain this chair and the chair would be in a church.

The Mermaid Saint In The Mermaid Chair there’s a sacred feminine image at the heart of the story- a mythical mermaid saint. She’s based on St. Senara, who is an actual church saint. In fact, the church in Cornwall where the real mermaid chair resides is named for St. Senara. Little is known about her, but in my research I came across a legend suggesting that before her conversion, she was a Celtic princess named Asenora, a woman who had a rather dubious reputation. I also found whimsical stories that St. Senara had been a mermaid at one point, & that even after she was converted, she continued to pine for the sea. This was too good to pass up. ~Interview with Sue Monk Kidd

The Mermaid Chair

A famous 15th Century bench end in St Senara church in Zennor depicts the mythical Mermaid of Zennor, who was said to have lured a sweet-voiced chorister, Matthew Trewhella, to his death in Pendour Cove below, with her beauty and bewitching singing.