Ann Patchett won the 2002 Orange Prize with the magical Bel Canto,
but she was a successful novelist long before that, as this reissue
of her first book proves. An elegant and intelligent novel, it's
set in a Roman Catholic home for unwed mothers, but St Elizabeth's
in Kentucky is not as horrendous and brutal a place as those we
have encountered before. Rose Clinton has abandoned both her
unexciting marriage and her loving mother to flee to the home,
planning to give up the child she is unhappy about having. But soon
the effect of the home (and its healing spring) begins to change
her decisions. Rose has to take into consideration not just the
family she has walked away from, but also those she has encountered
at St Elizabeth's, such as the enigmatic Sister Evangeline and the
odd-job man at the home. What makes Patchett's book work so well is
her confounding of the expectations the setting engenders. From
Iris Murdoch onwards, we have come to anticipate that religious
retreats will be places of repressed emotion and thwarted lives,
but that is not the case here. Some may find that its conclusions
are a touch too luminous, but there is no denying Patchett's
complex and believable characterization, not to mention the assured
plotting that makes this an extremely compelling read. (Kirkus UK)
It is 1968. Rose Clinton arrives at St Elizabeth's, a Roman Catholic home for unwed mothers in Habit, Kentucky. Rose has fled her dull but loving husband without telling him she is pregnant and has decided to be 'a liar for the rest of my life'. As penance, she has also abandoned her widowed and much loved mother, with no mention of her condition.
Rose plans to give her baby up because she knows she cannot be the mother it needs. But St. Elizabeth's is home to a healing spring, and when Rose's time draws near, she realises that she cannot go through with her plans. Nor can she remain untouched by those she has left behind; by the ever-watchful Sister Evangeline; by the love of Son, the handyman at St. Elizabeth; or later by the birth of her daughter Cecilia.
Enchantingly graceful, Ann Patchett's first novel is about sanctuary and pilgrimage, pain and healing and the helping hand of chance.
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