shopping cart
Save up to 30% on our Staff Picks
Call us:  800-878-7323 HELP
McAfee SECURE helps keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud, spyware, spam, viruses and online scams.
Interviews | November 19, 2009

Dave: IMG Finding John Irving: The Powells.com Interview



johnirving[Editor's note: The following is a reprint of our 2005 interview with John Irving, whose new novel, Last Night in Twisted River, has just come out... Continue »
  1. $19.60 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$3.70
List price: $23.00
Used Hardcover
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
Qty Store Section
1 Local Warehouse Literature- A to Z

More copies of this ISBN:

Altar Music

by Christin Lore Weber

Altar Music Cover

ISBN13: 9780684868660
ISBN10: 0684868660
Condition: Standard
Dustjacket: None
All Product Details

Only 1 left in stock at $3.70!

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

In her achingly beautiful and revelatory first novel, Christin Lore Weber, a former nun, explores the nature and power of passion — sexual, religious, and artistic — and brings us into a mysterious, cloistered world rarely made public. Set in the wild, rock-and-lake region of northern Minnesota, this is an exquisitely told tale of three generations of strong-willed women and their inner battles to balance personal longings with the disciplines of their church.

Meghan, in the first generation, dismisses the priest's injunctions regarding sex and succumbs to her passion for her husband. But when family tragedy strikes, she believes she has been brought down by the hand of God himself for her sexual indulgence. In the second generation, Kate is so afraid of what God could take away — "husbands, fathers, brothers, music even. God could take your life if he wanted" — that she learns to steel herself against any deep emotion or desire, to simply "endure, be faithful, and hope to be spared some small thing she loved, something perhaps God didn't want." By the third generation, the passions that moved her mother and grandmother have converged and intensified in young Elise, who is roused by forces beyond her understanding. She is at once a daughter of the Catholic church, a music prodigy, and a tuning fork for nature's wildness. But upon her high school graduation in 1958, Elise forsakes her musical genius and her family to enter the convent — a beautiful, exhilarating, disillusioning, and haunting experience that will drive her, ultimately, to consider leaving the church.

Written with stunning lyricism and emotional authenticity, Altar Music is a portrait of a nun as a young girl, a portrait of a family both defined and divided by its religious beliefs, and a powerful story about mothers and daughters. Heart-wrenching and thought-provoking, this novel brilliantly depicts the blurring of the lines between sexual passion, artistic passion, and religious fervor, and the losses we suffer when we try to translate one into another.

About the Author

Christin Lore Weber grew up in northern Minnesota, leaving home after high school to enter the convent. She worked as a nun for fourteen years before becoming a writer. The author of six books of confiction, including Circle of Mysteries and binding Stone, she lives in the Pacific North-west with her husband. This is her first novel.

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
fblasi, July 13, 2008 (view all comments by fblasi)
Although not a new book, "Altar Music" captured me like no book has in a long while. Three generations of one family's Catholic women are followed through this novel: their passions, their guilt, and their sense of "God," are both mystical and intriguing. I could not put this book down: I lived IN it the entire time I was reading. I highly recommend it to any person interested in the lives of nuns, women and music. You can't go wrong. Really.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

Product Details

ISBN:
9780684868660
Subtitle:
A Novel
Author:
Weber, Christin Lore
Publisher:
Scribner
Location:
New York :
Subject:
General
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
Women
Subject:
Family
Subject:
Minnesota
Subject:
Mothers and daughters
Subject:
Sagas
Subject:
Psychological
Subject:
Catholics
Subject:
Catholic women
Subject:
Nuns
Subject:
Domestic fiction
Subject:
General Fiction
Subject:
General Fiction
Series Volume:
93-R027
Publication Date:
20000302
Binding:
Hardback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
256
Dimensions:
9.25 x 6.125 in 17.36 oz

Other books you might like

  1. $3.50 Used Mass Market add to wish list

    Beans of Egypt Maine

    Carolyn Chute
  2. $7.75 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    Amsterdam

    Ian McEwan
  3. $6.50 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    Fall on Your Knees

    Ann-Marie MacDonald
  4. $3.25 Used Mass Market add to wish list

    1916 (Irish Century)

    Morgan Llywelyn
  5. $1.50 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

Related Aisles

  • back to top

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.