Frost in May - Softcover

White, Antonia

3.85

2,066 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385271425 ISBN 13: 9780385271424

Publisher: Doubleday, 1980

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Nanda Gray, the daughter of a Catholic convert, is nine when she is sent to the Convent of Five Wounds. Quick-witted, resilient and eager to please, she accepts this closed world where, with all the enthusiasm of the outsider, her desires and passions become only those the school permits. Her only deviation from total obedience is the passionate friendships she makes.

Convent life is perfectly captured - the smell of beeswax and incense; the petty cruelties of the nuns; the eccentricities of Nanda's school friends.

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Review:

Frost in May is the unsurpassed novel of convent school life. This story of a clash between a determined young girl and an authoritarian regime is both perceptive and painfully emotional, convincing in every detail (Hermione Lee Observer)

Evelyn Waugh called [her] one of the very best novelists of the day - a title she still deserves (Carol Shields)

Intense, troubling, semi-miraculous ... IT is not the only school story to be a classic; but I can think of no other that is a work of art (Elizabeth Bowen)

A masterpiece. Beautifully written, it is a calm and factual record of the slow death of the soul (Selina Hastings)

Book Description:

*'Frost in May is the unsurpassed novel of convent school life' Hermione Lee, Observer

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