Knowledge of Angels - Softcover

Jill Paton Walsh

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0552997803 ISBN 13: 9780552997805

Publisher: Black Swan, 1998

Synopsis

It is, perhaps, the fifteenth century and the ordered tranquillity of a Mediterranean island is about to be shattered by the appearance of two outsiders: one, a castaway, plucked from the sea by fishermen, whose beliefs represent a challenge to the established order; the other, a child abandoned by her mother and suckled by wolves, who knows nothing of the precarious relationship between Church and State but whose innocence will become the subject of a dangerous experiment.

But the arrival of the Inquisition on the island creates a darker, more threatening force which will transform what has been a philosophical game of chess into a matter of life and death...

About this title

From the Publisher

"Praised by Ursula K. Le Guin as a "disturbing and beautiful novel of ideas," Knowledge Of Angels is an absorbing read that explores timeless conflicts between tolerance and moral certainty, between loving kindness and murderous cruelty. Capturing the mood of William Golding's haunting medieval love story, The Spire, Knowledge Of Angels is a suspenseful fable set on a mythical island in the time of the Inquisition, a time of unquestionable and unquestioned faith and unmerciful justice. The fable spins a tale of two outcasts: a wild, flesh-eating wolf child and a foreign prince, captured separately and taken to the cardinal prince of the island. The wolf girl is remanded to a nunnery, where her caretakers are ordered to teach her to speak but not to speak of God, so that the cardinal can ask her if God exists. On her answer depends the life of the heretic prince, condemned because he does not believe in God. The federal creature and the elegant paladin are used as pawns by the town's religious council to answer the question of whether or not believing in God is an inherent part of being human.

"[Its] lapidary prose leads the enchanted and unsuspecting reader from escapism to self- scrutiny."--The New Yorker.

"An illuminated and illuminating book [that] advances to a brilliant and relentless conclusion."--New York Newsday.

"A novel set in a time and place other than the here and now, but a novel of importance to the here and now-one that prompts us to grapple with the great questions of trust, faith, understanding. A soul-compelling book that will touch many readers deeply."--Robert Coles, author of The Spiritual Life Of Children.

About the Author

Jill Paton Walsh was educated at St Michael's Convent, North Finchley, and at St Anne's College, Oxford. She is the author of several highly praised adult novels: Lapsing, A School For Lovers, Knowledge of Angels, which was shortlisted for the 1994 Booker Prize, Goldengrove Unleaving, The Serpentine Cave and A Desert in Bohemia. She has also won many awards for her children's literature, including the Whitbread Prize, the Universe Prize and the Smarties Award. She has three children and lives in Cambridge.

Edition details

• Publisher: Black Swan
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0552997803
• ISBN 13: 9780552997805
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 289