Using a crisp French accent, narrator Jane Copland embodies Sister Johanna Marie, the featured character in this introspective Icelandic novel. The French nun tells a story that moves fluidly between her years as a college student in Paris in the 1960s; her investigation of abuse at a Catholic school in Reykjavik, ending in a priest's fall from a bell tower in 1987; and her return to Iceland 30 years later to confront the boy, now a man, who witnessed it. Sister Johanna Marie's lifelong struggles with love and faith arise from her unspoken passion for her college roommate, a subplot that overshadows the mystery surrounding the priest's death. Copland's tone evokes the spirit of a woman who is full of sincerity and regret despite her feisty edge. S.T.C. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
The haunting, vivid story of a nun whose past returns to her in unexpected ways, all while investigating a mysterious death and a series of harrowing abuse claims.
A young nun is sent by the Vatican to investigate allegations of misconduct at a Catholic school in Iceland. During her time there, on a gray winter's day, a young student at the school watches the school's headmaster, Father August Franz, fall to his death from the church tower.
Two decades later, the child-now a grown man, haunted by the past-calls the nun back to the scene of the crime. Seeking peace and calm in her twilight years at a convent in France, she has no choice to make a trip to Iceland again, a trip that brings her former visit, as well as her years as a young woman in Paris, powerfully and sometimes painfully to life.*In Paris,*she met an Icelandic girl who she has not seen since, but whose acquaintance changed her life, a relationship she relives all while reckoning with the mystery of August Franz's death and the abuses of power that may have brought it on.
In*The Sacrament, critically acclaimed novelist Olaf Olafsson looks deeply at the complexity of our past lives and selves; the faulty nature of memory; and the indelible mark left by the joys and traumas of youth. Affecting and beautifully observed,*The Sacrament*is both propulsively told and poignantly written-tinged with the tragedy of life's regrets but also moved by the possibilities of redemption, a new work from a novelist who consistently surprises and challenges.
The haunting, vivid story of a nun whose past returns to her in unexpected ways, all while investigating a mysterious death and a series of harrowing abuse claims.
A young nun is sent by the Vatican to investigate allegations of misconduct at a Catholic school in Iceland. During her time there, on a gray winter's day, a young student at the school watches the school's headmaster, Father August Franz, fall to his death from the church tower.
Two decades later, the child-now a grown man, haunted by the past-calls the nun back to the scene of the crime. Seeking peace and calm in her twilight years at a convent in France, she has no choice to make a trip to Iceland again, a trip that brings her former visit, as well as her years as a young woman in Paris, powerfully and sometimes painfully to life.*In Paris,*she met an Icelandic girl who she has not seen since, but whose acquaintance changed her life, a relationship she relives all while reckoning with the mystery of August Franz's death and the abuses of power that may have brought it on.
In*The Sacrament, critically acclaimed novelist Olaf Olafsson looks deeply at the complexity of our past lives and selves; the faulty nature of memory; and the indelible mark left by the joys and traumas of youth. Affecting and beautifully observed,*The Sacrament*is both propulsively told and poignantly written-tinged with the tragedy of life's regrets but also moved by the possibilities of redemption, a new work from a novelist who consistently surprises and challenges.
Editorial Reviews
Product Details
BN ID: | 2940170296842 |
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Publisher: | HarperCollins |
Publication date: | 12/03/2019 |
Edition description: | Unabridged |
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