By the author of Black Narcissus and The River
‘Rumer Godden’s novels have a timeless shimmer’ GUARDIAN
‘One hundred years after her birth, Rumer Godden’s novels still pulse with life’ MATTHEW DENNISON, TELEGRAPH
‘Her craftsmanship is always sure’ NEW YORK TIMES
‘The motto was Pax but the word was set in a circle of thorns. Peace, but what a strange peace, made of unremitting toil and effort . . .’
Bruised by tragedy, Philippa Talbot leaves behind a successful career with the civil service for a new calling: to join an enclosed order of Benedictine nuns. In this small community of fewer than one hundred women, she soon discovers all the human frailties: jealousy, love, despair. But each crisis of heart and conscience is guided by the compassion and intelligence of the Abbess and by the Sisters’ shared bond of faith and ritual. Away from the world, and yet at one with it, Philippa must learn to forgive and forget her past . . .
‘Rumer Godden’s novels have a timeless shimmer’ GUARDIAN
‘One hundred years after her birth, Rumer Godden’s novels still pulse with life’ MATTHEW DENNISON, TELEGRAPH
‘Her craftsmanship is always sure’ NEW YORK TIMES
‘The motto was Pax but the word was set in a circle of thorns. Peace, but what a strange peace, made of unremitting toil and effort . . .’
Bruised by tragedy, Philippa Talbot leaves behind a successful career with the civil service for a new calling: to join an enclosed order of Benedictine nuns. In this small community of fewer than one hundred women, she soon discovers all the human frailties: jealousy, love, despair. But each crisis of heart and conscience is guided by the compassion and intelligence of the Abbess and by the Sisters’ shared bond of faith and ritual. Away from the world, and yet at one with it, Philippa must learn to forgive and forget her past . . .
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Reviews
Nearly sixty years after publishing her first novel, Godden remains a master of the form
Her craftsmanship is always sure; her understanding of character is compassionate and profound; her prose is pure, delicate, and gently witty
Rumer Godden's novels have a timeless shimmer. But powerful adult themes underlie their surface
One hundred years after her birth, Rumer Godden's novels still pulse with life
