Holy Fools - Hardcover

Harris, Joanne

3.6

8,707 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1585474266 ISBN 13: 9781585474264

Publisher: Center Point Pub, 2004

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Forced by circumstance to seek refuge with Fleur, her young daughter, in the remote abbey of Saint Marie-de-la-Mer, Juliette reinvents herself as Soeur Auguste under the tutelage of the kindly Abbess. But times are changing: the murder of Henri IV becomes the catalyst for massive upheaval in France. A new appointment is made, and Juliette's new life begins to unravel. For the new Abbess is Isabelle, the eleven-year-old child of a corrupt and noble family. Worse, Isabelle has brought with her a ghost from Juliette's past, masquerading as a cleric, a man she has every reason to fear...

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Review:

Holy Fools is Joanne Harris's most enjoyable novel yet, a beautifully detailed and sharply observed piece that emotionally moves the reader unlike anything she has tackled before. The immense success of Chocolat and Coastliners has made Harris one of the most cherished authors at work today, and each new book is something of an event.

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

Review:

"[A] fanciful souffl of sex and intrigue in seventeenth-century France." -- Elle (Holy Fools won the "Elle's Lettres" Reader's Prize for March 2004)

"Harris's robust humor and whimsical fantasy suits this take of seventeenth-century France."--Juice

"Compelling . . . a layered, mesmerizing gothic thriller."--Orlando Sentinel

"A uniquely vivid, emotionally ripe, verbal feast for the imagination."--Richmond Times-Dispatch

"Harris is at her best in re-creating a real sense of France."--Seattle Times

"[C]hock-full of the dazzling, magical style that made Harris famous."--Rocky Mountain News

"A page-turner with an irresistible plot, unforgettable characters and believable settings."--Oakland Tribune

"Rapturous ...A dark, seductive exploration of passion and repression that plumbs the depths of the human psyche."--BookPage

"Holy Fools is rich in style and nuance . . . an engaging, compelling read."--Denver Post

"[A] fanciful souffl? of sex and intrigue in seventeenth-century France."--Elle (Holy Fools won the "Elle's Lettres" Reader's Prize for March 2004)

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