false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173743457m/321572.jpg 321572 19 <p>With her internationally bestselling novels Chocolat, Blackberry Wine, Five Quarters of the Orange, and Coastliners, Joanne Harris has woven intoxicating spells that celebrate the sensuous while exposing the passion, secrets, and folly beneath the surface of rustic village life. In Holy Fools, her most ambitious and accomplished novel to date, she transports us back to a time of intrigue and turmoil, of deception and masquerade.</p><p>In the year 1605, a young widow, pregnant and alone, seeks sanctuary at the small Abbey of Sainte Marie-de-la-mer on the island of Noirs Moustiers off the Brittany coast. After the birth of her daughter, she takes up the veil, and a new name, Soeur Auguste. But the peace she has found in re-mote isolation is shattered five years later by the events that follow the death of her kind benefactress, the Reverend Mother.</p><p>When a new abbess -- the daughter of a corrupt noble family elevated by the murder of King Henri IV -- arrives at Sainte Marie-de-la-mer, she does not arrive alone. With her is her personal confessor and spiritual guide, Père Colombin, a man Soeur Auguste knows all too well. For the newcomer is Guy LeMerle, a charlatan and seducer now masquerading as a priest, and the one man she fears more than any other.</p><p>Soeur Auguste has a secret. Once she was l'Ailée, "The Winged One," star performer of a troupe led by LeMerle, before betrayal forced her to change her identity. But now the past has found her. Before long, thanks to LeMerle, suspicion and debauchery are breeding like a plague within the convent's walls -- fueled by dark rumors of witchcraft, part of the false priest's brilliantly orchestrated scheme of revenge. To protect herself and her beloved child, l'Ailée will have to perform one last act of dazzling daring more audacious than any she has previously attempted.</p> 1008825 2003 Holy Fools: A Novel (Harris, Joanne) total:1001|5:132|4:323|3:391|2:132|1:23| 1001 3412 1382 128 2 1 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Nov 24 07:03:34 -0800 2007 Sat Nov 24 07:04:40 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 31 14:28:10 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 31 14:29:44 -0700 2009
...more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri May 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri May 29 13:54:48 -0700 2009 Fri May 29 13:54:57 -0700 2009 The Pillars of the Earth, as that book was set in a monastery in England and this one in a convent in France, though 500 years later. I have not read Chocolat by Harris, but of course I have seen the movie and thoro...more...]]> 1 0 false false Thu May 21 01:24:27 -0700 2009 Thu May 21 01:24:27 -0700 2009 Holy Fools with interest. Loved the rich cover. Hoped to find out something about the 17th century mindset perhaps, or some local colour (the book's Noirs Moustiers (if I've got that right) is perhaps the current isle of Noirmoutiers. But she utterly failed to grip me. Let's hope it's t...more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Jun 12 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed May 14 07:55:43 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 03 11:34:05 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 21 10:09:33 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 01 03:54:59 -0700 2009 Harris has an affinity with certain themes and a section of this story is pretty much the same as Coastliners (apparitions, statues, gullible simple people).

I was actually looking forward to this one, as the main premise was right up my street. ...more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 09:24:34 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:24:34 -0800 2009 With few exceptions, critics agree that Harris's new novel is just as sumptuous as Chocolat, Blackberry Wine, Five Quarters of the Orange, and Coastliners. Much more than a tale of revenge and redemption, Holy Fools delves into maternal bonds, love and betrayal, 17th-century politics, and the abusiv...

more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Mar 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Apr 13 01:33:33 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 26 04:10:58 -0700 2009 "Holy Fools" is principally the story of two engaging characters: a gypsy-born nun with pagan ideas, hiding behind her veil the secrets of her adventuresome past as a famous acrobat, and a consummate actor who wears many faces -- even to himself -- and to ...more...]]> 5 0 true false Wed Jul 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 25 13:59:51 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 30 16:02:07 -0700 2009 1 The main character, Juliette, flees a circus troupe in 1610 Brittany to take refuge in the abbey of Sainte Marie-de-la-mer. Her life there with her little daughter, Fleur, is idyllic until the Rev. Mother dies.
...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Sep 30 00:00:00 -0700 2004 Mon Jan 05 04:42:37 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 13 03:33:35 -0800 2009
...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Jul 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 23 08:18:09 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 11 14:06:19 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Sep 09 17:55:58 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 09 17:56:58 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Tue Jul 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 05 11:44:48 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 07 18:34:10 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jun 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 18:37:13 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 18:40:22 -0700 2009 This is the story of Juliette, who was in a band of travelling players and she is forced to find her own way when she becomes pregnant.
She seeks refuge in a convent and life set...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jul 23 18:13:41 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 23 18:17:58 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Apr 15 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Thu Aug 06 06:40:00 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 06 06:40:44 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Sep 12 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 15 08:57:39 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 15 09:25:25 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Aug 27 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 25 03:33:16 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 29 09:46:05 -0700 2008 http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/4371...

I think this is the sixth novel I have read by Joanne Harris and it is the one I have enjoyed the least.
As with her previous novels the structure of the story is based around witchcraft and religion and a female with a dark secret in her pa...more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue May 29 14:16:17 -0700 2007 Tue Jun 12 13:11:43 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 0 false false Mon Mar 16 14:24:39 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 16 14:25:11 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=321572