Soon to be a film by Baz Luhrmann and Ava Pickett
Before she was a legend, she was a girl.
The story of Joan of Arc has always held a special fascination for writers – among them Voltaire, Mark Twain, George Bernard Shaw and Jean Anouilh. Transforming the legend, Thomas Keneally presents Jehanne as never before: a tough radical, an instinctive soldier, a doubtful prophet and a remarkable, vulnerable girl.
Set against the raging Hundred Years’ War, this is an extraordinary tale of girlhood, madness, treachery and faith, its haunting and compelling heroine framed by the tumultuous times in which she lived. For readers of Circe, Hamnet and Lapvona.
‘A St. Joan book to remember . . . the familiar tragedy flames up with new and terrible effects in the retelling’
SUNDAY TIMES
‘Saint Joan lives again, in a way we have not known her before . . . Startling and, at the same time, amazingly plausible’
NEW YORK TIMES
Reviews
A great storyteller
A St. Joan book to remember . . . the familiar tragedy flames up with new and terrible effects in the retelling
A vivid recreation of Joan's age, so full of hypocrisy, vengeance, blood, treachery and madness - one that is eminently worth reading
A fictionally and spiritually satisfying Joan
To say that Mr Keneally writes like a man possessed implies an abandon and breathlessness far from his tense, sinewy prose; yet this is perhaps the only way to convey the power and immediate quality of his remarkable novel. The effect is one of excitement and absolute authority
Saint Joan lives again, robustly, in a way we have not known her before . . . The result is startling and, at the same time, amazingly plausible . . . Keneally's Jehanne, alone, is supple and fully dimensional. She is, at times, sharply nostalgic for the world of ordinary loves and lives she must leave behind . . . none of this diminishes Joan. It ennobles her sacrifice by making it real.
A great storyteller
A St Joan book to remember . . . the familiar tragedy flames up with new and terrible effects in the retelling
A vivid recreation of Joan's age, so full of hypocrisy, vengeance, blood, treachery and madness - one that is eminently worth reading
A fictionally and spiritually satisfying Joan
To say that Mr Keneally writes like a man possessed implies an abandon and breathlessness far from his tense, sinewy prose; yet this is perhaps the only way to convey the power and immediate quality of his remarkable novel. The effect is one of excitement and absolute authority
Praise for Thomas Keneally:
'Thomas Keneally is one of the historical novel's most expert practitioners' Guardian
'The best Australian writer alive' Auberon Waugh