Synopses & Reviews
Kathryn Harrison gives us a Joan of Arc for our time — a shining exemplar of unshakable faith, extraordinary courage, and self-confidence on the battlefield, in the royal court, during a brutally rigged inquisition and imprisonment, and in the face of her death. In this new take on Joan’s story, Harrison deftly weaves historical fact, myth, folklore, scripture, artistic representations, and centuries of scholarly and critical interpretation into a fascinating narrative, revitalizing our sense of Joan as one of the greatest heroines in all of human history.
Review
“Compulsively readable. . . . In novelist Harrison’s deft hands, the
latest analysis is both vividly detailed and historically grounded.
Casting a modern eye on a medieval legend, she is able to breathe new
life into the girl, the warrior, the messenger from God, and the saint.”
Booklist
Review
“Harrison joins the psychobiography school of life writing, doing so with memorable writing and an energetic approach.” Kirkus Reviews
Review
“If you aren’t already in thrall to the ‘Maid of Orleans’, you might be by the end of Kathryn Harrison’s Joan of Arc. . . . [It] builds Joan’s story with such novelistic detail and grace that the author’s rapture becomes ours.” The Oregonian
Review
“Stunning. . . . A layered portrait not only of Joan’s life, but of her
times. . . . [Harrison] awes us with her incisive intelligence, her
fierce curiosity, her literary prowess.” The Boston Globe
Review
“It remains, after nearly 600 years, a story to break your heart . . . .
It is Joan’s rambunctious humanity as much as her divinity that makes
her powerful, both for modern audiences and historians.” The New York Times Book Review
Review
“Passionate. . . . Harrison superbly teases out the politics and paradoxes of the Maid of Orleans’ wildly improbable saga.” Elle
About the Author
Kathryn Harrison is the author of the memoirs The Kiss and The Mother Knot. She has also written the novels Envy, The Seal Wife, The Binding Chair, Poison, Exposure, and Thicker Than Water; a travel memoir, The Road to Santiago; a biography, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux; and a collection of essays, Seeking Rapture. She lives in New York with her husband, the novelist Colin Harrison, and their children.