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The Maid: A Novel of Joan of Arc
Kimberly Cutter
#UE8822
Hardcover, 304 pages; 2011
$26.00
She is seventeen, a peasant, unschooled, simple as a thumb. Fear has no place in her heart yet, though soon enough it will. Soon enough she will be caged, tortured, branded a witch, a whore, a limb of Satan. But on this morning she is simply God's arrow, shot across the winterland, brilliant and savage and divine. Unstoppable.
Jehanne is just twelve years old the first time she hears the voices, on a hot summer day in 1422. For nearly seventy years, France has been mired in war, and English soldiers freely roam the countryside murdering citizens, burning villages, and stripping the land of what little sustenance remains. It will take a miracle to save France, and Jehanne, the voices decree, will be the one to do it. You probably think you know the rest of this story about the peasant girl who raised an army, crowned a king, and was burned at the stake for her trouble. But The Maid presents a fresh (fictional) take on this legendary tale, a richly textured portrait of a young woman blessed with passionate faith--even as she was tormented by temptation, anger, and doubt.
(KG)
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