The Priest's Madonna

Hassinger, Amy

ISBN 10: 1593160712 ISBN 13: 9781593160715

Publisher: Listen & Live Audio, Inc., 2006

Synopsis

For fans of The Birth of Venus, Girl with a Pearl Earring, and The Other Boleyn Girl, Amy Hassinger, author of Nina: Adolescence, delivers this historically lush, lyrical and thoroughly enthralling novel about the forbidden love between a woman and a holy man, and about the moral and spiritual struggles of faith.In 1896, the priest in a small village in southern France suddenly came into possession of immense wealth. This much is true. What no one knows for sure is where his money came from. The history of the region suggests that he may have stumbled upon clues to a hidden treasure of the Knights Templar. An even more tantalizing possibility is that he discovered coded documents hidden in the structure of his church, documents so threatening to the Catholic Church that he was paid to keep silent. At his death under mysterious circumstances in 1917, his secrets died with him.Yet there is one other person who may have known all--Marie Dernanaud, the priest's housekeeper and, some say, his lover. Interweaving the history of France at the turn of the twentieth century, scenes of ancient Judea, and the romantic and religious journey of a spirited and intense heroine, The Priest's Madonna gives Marie a chance to tell her version of what transpired—as well as her own story of belief, doubt, and illicit passions.

About this title

About the Author:

Amy Hassinger Amy Hassinger was born in Newton, MA, and graduated from Barnard College and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she received her MFA in fiction writing. She is the author of two novels. Deemed "superb" by O, the Oprah Magazine and "truly penetrating" by Salon.com, Nina: Adolescence has been translated into Dutch and Portuguese and was named a semi-finalist for the 2005 Julia Peterkin Award. Her stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Arts and Letters, Natural Bridge, and Blithe House Quarterly Online, and have been anthologized in Best Lesbian Love Stories. Publishing houses in Holland, Spain, and Indonesia have purchased the foreign rights to The Priest's Madonna. She is also the author of Finding Katahdin: An Exploration of Maine's Past. She's taught English to middle school students, and writing and literature to undergraduates, and is currently on the faculty of the University of Nebraska's MFA in Writing Program. She lives in Urbana, Illinois with her husband and daughter.

From Publishers Weekly:

A historical romance that mixes literary heft and pop-fiction indulgence, Hassinger's ambitious second novel (following Nina: Adolescence) makes for a busy, derivative read. Marie Dernanaud, raised a religious skeptic, is immediately attracted to Bérenger Saunière, the devout, charismatic priest who takes over the parish of her small town, Rennes-le-Château, in the 1890s. While hiding their dangerous affection for each other behind arguments over religion and revolution, Marie, who narrates, and Bérenger oversee their church's renovation, which turns up some curious artifacts: a map, a book and an ancient stone carving that might hold a Da Vinci–esque code. (Wearyingly, the stuff does in fact have its origins with the Knights Templar.) With the help of the enigmatic mayor's wife, Madame Simone Laporte, Marie tries to piece together the mystery of the church, but Bérenger has confessed that he's being fed a steady diet of cash by a powerful financier who wants access to whatever they find—including possible proof of a bloodline (here's Simone's interest) descended from Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Hassinger believably conveys Bérenger's transformation from gentle clergyman to angry, corrupt doubter, and mixes in some tantalizing ancient doings in Judea, but all the competing interests sap the dynamism from Marie, who never achieves a distinct voice.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Listen & Live Audio, Inc.
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1593160712
• ISBN 13: 9781593160715
• Binding: Audio CD