Knowledge of Angels

Paton Walsh, Jill

4

1,709 ratings by Goodreads

ISBN 10: 0395686660 ISBN 13: 9780395686669

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (Trade), 1994

This "disturbing and beautiful novel of ideas" (Ursula K. Le Guin) is enacted by a wide variety of characters on a Mediterranean island before the Reformation: a saintly monk whose faith is sorely tested; a wild, flesh-eating child who is captured by mountain shepherds and taken to the cardinal prince of the island; a castaway who swims ashore to a very strange welcome. Peopled by peasants, servants, shepherds, priests, nuns young and old, Knowledge of Angels sets off a wonderful fireworks of attitudes toward God and poses a hundred unrelenting questions.
Is a tolerant engineering wizard who can speak to the priests of the Church in Latin but who will not confess to a belief in God truly a heretic? Must he undergo punishment, or will he undermine the faith of those who are testing his? Will the wolf-girl, who has never heard the name of God spoken, turn into a full-fledged human being, or will she always be at heart the same thing that she was when found?
The story unfolds in unexpected and thrilling ways. As Susan Cooper, the Newberry Medal winner, has written, "Its characters are haunting and its story will not let you pause to take breath." Laid in a medieval time of unquestioning faith, and conveyed in simple but evocative prose, this book explores the conflicts between tolerance and moral certainty, between loving kindness and murderous cruelty. It has all too much relevance to our contemporary world.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

"'A compelling medieval fable, written from the heart and melded to a driving narrative which never once loses its tremendous pace'" (Guardian)

"'An irresistible blend of intellect and passion'" (Mail on Sunday)

"'This remarkable novel resembles an illuminated manuscript mapped with angels and mountains and signposts, an allegory for today and yesterday too. A beautiful, unsettling moral fiction about virtue and intolerance'" (Observer)

"'Remarkable...Utterly absorbing...richly detailed and finely imagined'" (Sunday Telegraph)

"'The lucidity of Jill Paton Walsh's style and the dexerity of the narrative are such that her book reads more like a good thriller than a weighty novel of ideas...An ingenious fable'" (The Times)

From the Publisher:

reviews
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize

'Remarkable...Utterly absorbing...richly detailed and finely imagined' Sunday Telegraph

'A compelling medieval fable, written from the heart and melded to a driving narrative which never once loses its tremendous pace' Guardian

'This remarkable novel resembles an illuminated manuscript mapped with angels and mountains and signposts, an allegory for today and yesterday too. A beautiful, unsettling moral fiction about virtue and intolerance' Observer

'The lucidity of Jill Paton Walsh's style and the dexerity of the narrative are such that her book reads more like a good thriller than a weighty novel of ideas...An ingenious fable' The Times

'An irresistible blend of intellect and passion' Mail on Sunday

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.