Lambs of God - Hardcover

Day, Marele

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1573220795 ISBN 13: 9781573220798

Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover, 1998

Synopsis

Three devout nuns living in a crumbling monastery on a remote island are simultaneously attracted to and resentful of an ambitious priest who arrives to survey their land for the site of a spa for the wealthy. 22,500 first printing.

About this title

About the Author:

Marele Day is well known in her native Australia as the author of several successful crime novels, as well as short stories and poems.

From Publishers Weekly:

A man intrudes on an all but extinct order of pastoral nuns in this intriguing but heavy-handed parable from Australian crime-novelist Day. Sisters Iphigenia, Margarita and Carla live in a ruined monastery on a remote Australian island, tending their only flock: the Agnes sisters, sheep named for nuns who have died. The rhythm of life is seasonal and canonical: washing day, shearing day, Christmas, Lent. It's hard to say what year it is... until Father Ignatius arrives with a cellular phone to assess what he thought was abandoned property. A career churchman, Ignatius wants to turn a profit by transforming the forgotten nunnery into a luxury retreat for businessmen. The story takes a Stephen King turn when the nuns realize that the priest's plans threaten them. Ignatius is drugged with herbal tea, stripped, shaved and plastered up to the waist in a cast. Still, the priest's presence provokes different reactions from each nun, stirring up long-dormant secrets that threaten to tear apart their community. Ignatius himself undergoes something more than a physical transformation as he is forced to reassess the meaning of his mission in the church. Although Day has undeniable storytelling gifts and weaves together an impressive number of storytelling traditions (classical, biblical, Celtic and fairy tale), the novel's rather kitschy setup and often gruesomely graphic feminist symbolism may force even sympathetic readers to share Ignatius's feeling that "There were parts of the story that even he was having trouble swallowing." BOMC, One Spirit Book Club and Quality Paperback Club featured alternate selections; foreign rights sold in the U.K. (Anchor), Australia (Allen & Unwin), Germany (Piper) and the Netherlands (Vassalecci). (Apr.) FYI: Lambs of God has been optioned by Fox 2000, with Winona Ryder as producer and costar.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 1573220795
• ISBN 13: 9781573220798
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 330