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Holy Fools is set in 17th century France, and the central character is Juliette, a former actress and rope dancer who has given up her travelling life to become a teaching nun at a remote abbey. Juliette has settled with her young daughter into an existence very different from that she knew, and she finds comfort from the advice of the wise and friendly abbess.
Harris brilliantly delineates both phases of her heroine's life: the colourful earlier era and the new demands of the semi-cloistered life. Things change radically when the abbess dies and her place is taken by an 11-year-old girl whose appetite for reform quickly destroys much that Juliet has come to love in her new life. What makes the book so refreshingly original is not just the unusual structure (the heroine's dual life alone is handled with radiant detail), but the surprising new trajectory the narrative takes after the death of the abbess, as everything Juliette was used to begins to go wrong.
We become involved in every minor crisis, however much we question that the religious life is the answer to her problems. Juliette is a brilliantly drawn character, and the plotting of this ambitious novel is both thoughtful and invigorating, while the basic theme--the ploys we all use to distract ourselves from the painful realities of existence--is handled with subtlety. --Barry Forshaw
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Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. In seventeenth-century France, against a backdrop of witch trials, regicide and religious frenzy, Juliette, one-time actress and rope-dancer, seeks refuge with her young daughter in the remote abbey of Saint Marie-de-la-Mer, and reinvents herself as Soeur Auguste. Seller Inventory # B9780552770019
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Book Description Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Paperback edition of this French-set historical fiction from the hugely popular author of 'Chocolat, Blackberry Wine' and 'Five Quarters of the Orange'. 'A writer of tremendous charm' 'The Independent'. Seller Inventory # 9780552770019
Book Description Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Paperback edition of this French-set historical fiction from the hugely popular author of 'Chocolat, Blackberry Wine' and 'Five Quarters of the Orange'. 'A writer of tremendous charm' 'The Independent'. Seller Inventory # 9780552770019
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