Sketches from a Sunlit Heaven: A Novel

by Sarah Law

Overview

What is it like to have a saint for a sister? This lyrical and fragmentary novel draws us into the brief life and powerful legacy of Saint Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897), a French Carmelite nun who remains a much-loved figure in and beyond the Catholic Church. We follow Therese's story through the voices of six characters who knew her well: her sisters Marie, Pauline, Leonie, and Celine; a young cousin; and a troubled seminarian with whom she corresponds towards the end of her life. Each character offers their own perspective as they witness to Therese's life and death, the turns of history, and the subsequent complexities of promulgating a saint. Spanning the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, each voice negotiates the tensions of religious life. The novel presents some remarkable people and events while inviting in the mysteries of grace, silence, and sunlight.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781666793567
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	09/23/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Sarah Law is an associate lecturer for the Open University. She has published six poetry collections, including Thérèse: Poems (2020). She edits the online journal Amethyst Review, for new writing engaging with the sacred. She lives in Norwich, UK.

Sarah Law is an associate lecturer for the Open University and elsewhere. She has published six previous poetry collections, including Thérèse: Poems (2020), and a novel, Sketches from a Sunlit Heaven (Wipf and Stock, 2022), winner of an Illumination Book Awards Silver Medal. She edits the online journal Amethyst Review, for new writing engaging with the sacred, editing and publishing occasional collections and anthologies under Amethyst Press. She lives in Norwich in the UK.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Catching convincing details and feelings never considered in official accounts, Saint Thérèse’s family leaps from the pages of history in these luminous ‘sketches.’ You don’t have to know Thérèse’s history to enjoy this perceptive imagining of the lives of those closest to her, drawn, in all their humanity, with an always merciful eye.”

—Melaney Poli, author of Playing a Part: A Novel



“Bereft after their mother’s early death, five sisters discern who belongs within the enclosure of a different sisterhood in this deftly written historical and biographical novel. There, another mother, ‘the Wolf,’ welcomes one after another into Carmel. The youngest, Thérèse, must convince her father and papal Father of her true vocation, while Celine shrugs off romance for art or convent, or both. Law’s masterful juxtapositions of interior/exterior life causes one to wonder who is truly ‘called.’”

—Marie Laure, author of Return from Exile: Revelations from an Anchoress in St. Augustine



“Sarah Law has crafted a shimmering mosaic from the lives of those closest to Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, and every sunlit shard sparks the jeweled whole. The Martin sisters and others rise alive in these pages, each vividly imagined character struggling with challenges of her own. The fragmentary narrative brilliantly carries both their absorbing stories and new ways of seeing the fascinating saint who continues to inspire millions.”

—Laura Reece Hogan, author of I Live, No Longer I



“I lost myself completely in the world of Sarah Law’s Sketches from a Sunlit Heaven, a luminous historical novel of family love and religious devotion. Wonderfully intelligent, beautifully written, and full of wisdom, it is a worthy tribute to its extraordinary subject.”

—Michael Hughes, author of Country: A Novel

Editorial Reviews

Catching convincing details and feelings never considered in official accounts, Saint Thérèse’s family leaps from the pages of history in these luminous ‘sketches.’ You don’t have to know Thérèse’s history to enjoy this perceptive imagining of the lives of those closest to her, drawn, in all their humanity, with an always merciful eye.”

—Melaney Poli, author of Playing a Part: A Novel



“Bereft after their mother’s early death, five sisters discern who belongs within the enclosure of a different sisterhood in this deftly written historical and biographical novel. There, another mother, ‘the Wolf,’ welcomes one after another into Carmel. The youngest, Thérèse, must convince her father and papal Father of her true vocation, while Celine shrugs off romance for art or convent, or both. Law’s masterful juxtapositions of interior/exterior life causes one to wonder who is truly ‘called.’”

—Marie Laure, author of Return from Exile: Revelations from an Anchoress in St. Augustine



“Sarah Law has crafted a shimmering mosaic from the lives of those closest to Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, and every sunlit shard sparks the jeweled whole. The Martin sisters and others rise alive in these pages, each vividly imagined character struggling with challenges of her own. The fragmentary narrative brilliantly carries both their absorbing stories and new ways of seeing the fascinating saint who continues to inspire millions.”

—Laura Reece Hogan, author of I Live, No Longer I



“I lost myself completely in the world of Sarah Law’s Sketches from a Sunlit Heaven, a luminous historical novel of family love and religious devotion. Wonderfully intelligent, beautifully written, and full of wisdom, it is a worthy tribute to its extraordinary subject.”

—Michael Hughes, author of Country: A Novel

From the Publisher