Book description
'I am hungry for your presence. I hanker for the great blaze of
your glance which when you turn it on me, will burn out the husk of my
body and draw my soul to you.' Julia O'Faolian's second novel, first
published in 1973, offers a rich, vivid portrait of the political and
religious turmoil of sixth-century Gaul, wherein we find Radegunda,
wife of King Clotair having been seized by him as a prize of war.
Radegunda builds a convent, a refuge for the Brides of Christ, and
there becomes renowned for her austerity and mysticism. Her religion,
however, is fanatical, and her quest for sainthood will serve to
undermine the seeming calm of the retreat she has made. 'Vibrant and
strange... [a] journey into a darker, wilder moment of history.' Sarah
Dunant, Guardian
Julia O'Faolain was born in London in 1932. Educated at University
College, Dublin, the University of Rome and the Sorbonne, she worked as
a translator and language teacher before becoming a writer. Her works
include the short story collections We Might See Sights! and Other
Stories, Man in the Cellar and Daughters of Passion, and the novels
Godded and Codded, Women in the Wall, No Country for Young Men, The
Obedient Wife, The Irish Signorina and The Judas Cloth. She has edited
(with husband Lauro Martines) Not in God's Image: Women in History from
the Greeks to the Victorians. As Julia Martines she translated Two
Memoirs of Renaissance Florence: The Diaries of Buonaccorso Pitti and
Gregorio Dati.
