false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181389753m/1145402.jpg 1145402 5 Julia Blackburn's first novel, <I>The Book of Color</I>, revolved around a curse; her second, however, is all about miracles--double-edged though they might be. The narrator is a nameless woman who has recently lost someone she loved. "What she wanted to do now was to bang the door shut on this present time by setting out on a journey to some distant country and staying there until the present had blurred and shifted and become indistinguishable from the past. But that was not possible." A page later, we discover that, indeed, it is. At first, the narrator imagines herself in a nearby village, walking along the sandy beach or visiting the ancient church, its stones covered in lichen. Then, "one night in the month of February, when the east wind was bitterly cold and she felt so sad she didn't know what to do, she found herself going down the main street of the village." Only now the street is rutted with the tracks of carts, the houses are small and battered and the church is newly built--the past has, indeed, become indistinguishable from the present, for now it is the year 1410. <p> This is the year a mermaid washes up on the beach, bringing with her, apparently, a litany of disaster: a child born with a fish's head, a dead cow, a creeping blindness. In the village there is a woman beset by devils; a blind shoemaker who goes mad when his sight is restored; a leper who is miraculously cured; a young widow who eats a map and is filled with longing for faraway lands. All, including the narrator, eventually embark on a long and arduous pilgrimage to Jerusalem, from which only two will return. <I>The Leper's Companions</I> is beautifully written and its world of wonders is sufficiently rich to keep one turning the pages until the very end. Yet each event seems curiously isolated from all the rest, giving this novel an episodic feel that leaves the reader wishing for a little more substance beneath the beguiling surface. <I>--Alix Wilber</I> 978104 4 5 1999 The Leper's Companions total:26|5:5|4:8|3:7|2:4|1:2| 26 88 39 12 2840162 0679439846 9780679439844 3 2 3.38 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2840162.The_Leper_s_Companions_A_novel 4 0 false Sat Mar 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 24 10:25:01 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 11:02:22 -0700 2009
But when I actually sat down to read it, ...more...]]> 1145402 0099272768 9780099272762 20 9 3.38 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181389753m/1145402.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1145402.The_Leper_s_Companions 1 0 false Thu Aug 10 00:00:00 -0700 2000 Wed Aug 12 13:42:16 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 12 13:42:48 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1145402 0099272768 9780099272762 20 9 3.38 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181389753m/1145402.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1145402.The_Leper_s_Companions 3 0 false Fri Dec 05 13:59:37 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 14 13:30:47 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2840162 0679439846 9780679439844 3 2 3.38 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2840162.The_Leper_s_Companions_A_novel 3 0 false Tue Dec 09 09:47:06 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 09 09:47:06 -0800 2008 1145402 0099272768 9780099272762 20 9 3.38 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181389753m/1145402.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1145402.The_Leper_s_Companions 2 0 false Sun Jan 25 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 25 07:25:46 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 25 07:26:58 -0800 2009 1145402 0099272768 9780099272762 20 9 3.38 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181389753m/1145402.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1145402.The_Leper_s_Companions 2 0 false Fri Jul 10 12:14:02 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 10 12:14:47 -0700 2009 1145402 0099272768 9780099272762 20 9 3.38 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181389753m/1145402.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1145402.The_Leper_s_Companions 1 0 false Mon May 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 22:37:05 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 25 14:43:43 -0700 2009 1145402 0099272768 9780099272762 20 9 3.38 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181389753m/1145402.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1145402.The_Leper_s_Companions 5 0 false Tue Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Thu Sep 27 10:24:48 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 27 10:26:28 -0700 2007
Those of you who dance will like the ambiguity and temporal quality of the book. It is full of truth, myth, mystery, and layers upon layers of meaning.]]> 1145402 0099272768 9780099272762 20 9 3.38 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181389753m/1145402.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1145402.The_Leper_s_Companions 4 0 false Fri Jan 16 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Oct 15 08:01:31 -0700 2008 Sat Jan 17 15:51:27 -0800 2009 1145402 0099272768 9780099272762 20 9 3.38 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181389753m/1145402.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1145402.The_Leper_s_Companions 5 0 false Wed Sep 24 12:22:51 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 24 12:25:00 -0700 2008 992609 022405127X 9780224051279 1 1 3.38 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180050584m/992609.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/992609.The_Leper_s_Companion 3 0 false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 17 09:09:21 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 24 10:28:48 -0700 2008 1145402 0099272768 9780099272762 20 9 3.38 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181389753m/1145402.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1145402.The_Leper_s_Companions 5 0 false Fri Sep 07 11:55:56 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 07 12:05:41 -0700 2007 1145402 0099272768 9780099272762 20 9 3.38 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181389753m/1145402.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1145402.The_Leper_s_Companions 0 0 false Wed Dec 09 21:53:02 -0800 2009 Wed Dec 09 21:53:02 -0800 2009 1145402 0099272768 9780099272762 20 9 3.38 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181389753m/1145402.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1145402.The_Leper_s_Companions 4 0 false Tue Aug 25 14:18:21 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 25 14:18:21 -0700 2009 2840162 0679439846 9780679439844 3 2 3.38 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2840162.The_Leper_s_Companions_A_novel 0 0 false Wed Aug 19 13:37:18 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 15 13:26:26 -0700 2009 1145402 0099272768 9780099272762 20 9 3.38 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181389753m/1145402.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1145402.The_Leper_s_Companions 0 0 false Fri Jul 10 10:41:23 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 10 10:41:23 -0700 2009 1396327 0679758380 9780679758389 2 0 3.38 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1183264474m/1396327.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1396327.The_Leper_s_Companions_A_Novel 4 0 false Wed May 27 00:46:54 -0700 2009 Wed May 27 00:46:54 -0700 2009 1145402 0099272768 9780099272762 20 9 3.38 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181389753m/1145402.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1145402.The_Leper_s_Companions 0 0 false Mon Dec 29 08:07:49 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 29 08:07:53 -0800 2008 1145402 0099272768 9780099272762 20 9 3.38 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181389753m/1145402.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1145402.The_Leper_s_Companions 3 0 false Fri Feb 06 06:38:01 -0800 2009 Tue Dec 16 11:28:13 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 06 06:38:01 -0800 2009 1145402 0099272768 9780099272762 20 9 3.38 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181389753m/1145402.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1145402.The_Leper_s_Companions 0 0 false Tue Nov 11 22:12:22 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 11 22:12:26 -0800 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=1145402