A gorgeous, compelling story set in mediaeval France, Holy Fools has all the ingredients I love in Joanne Harris’s books.
Joanne Harris, bestselling author of Chocolat, presents her most accomplished novel yet — an intoxicating concoction that blends theology and reason, deception and masquerade, with a dash of whimsical humor and a soupçon of sensuality.
Britanny, 1610. Juliette, a one-time actress and rope dancer, is forced to seek refuge among the sisters of the abbey of Sainte Marie-de-la-mer. Reinventing herself as Soeur Auguste, Juliette makes a new life for herself and her young daughter, Fleur.
But when the kindly abbess dies, Juliette’s comfortable existence begins to unravel. The abbey’s new leader is the daughter of a corrupt noble family, and she arrives with a ghost from Juliette’s past — Guy LeMerle, a man she has every reason to fear and hate.
