The Angel's Promise - Hardcover

Frederic Lenoir; Violette Cabesos

3.65

725 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1933648066 ISBN 13: 9781933648064

Publisher: Pegasus Books, 2006

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"A madly imaginative . . . breathtaking theological thriller."-Elle (France)

Rising out of the sea on a rocky isle off the coast of France, the church and abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel have withstood the harsh northern weather-and withheld its darkest medieval mysteries-for one thousand years. Until now.

Now a young, brilliant archeologist, Joanna, has begun to uncover and explore secrets that have long lain buried at the sacred site. For not even ten centuries have been able to obliterate completely the brutal treachery of the Benedictine monk Brother Almodius or the misfortunes of the tender-hearted Brother Roman in his forbidden love for a Celtic girl who survived ritualistic torture by the elements of earth, air, fire, and water.

In an expedition at once metaphysical and archeological, reality becomes an elusive, dangerous place, and it leaves Joanna with no one she can fully trust: from her married lover, Franois, to Simon, the cosmopolitan antique dealer strangely connected to the abbey; to Guillaume, whose passion for Joanna's work comes not unalloyed; to the jealous archeologist-and devious saboteur-Patrick Fenoy.

Her science increasingly challenged by inexplicable mysteries, in the embrace of peril Joanna treads the ancient stones and arcana in the depths of the Romanesque abbey at Mont-Saint-Michel as this prize-winning and artfully-crafted thriller unfolds.

Frdric Lenoir is a philosopher specializing in the study of religions. He has published over 20 books and been translated in over a dozen languages.

Violette Cabesos has written one previous novel, Sang Comme Neige. Both she and Mr. Lenoir live in Paris.

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About the Author:

Frdric Lenoir is a philosopher specializing in the study of religions. He has published over twenty books, including Les Mtamorphoses de Dieu (Plon, 2003), L'Encyclopdie des Religions (Bayard, 2000) and Le Livre des Sagesses (Bayard, 2002). Lenoir's work has been translated into twenty languages. He lives in Paris.

From Booklist:

The celebrated church and abbey at Mont St. Michel provide the backdrop for this clever, if long-winded, winner of France's prestigious Prix des Maisons de la Presse (Bookseller's Prize). After visiting the Mont as a child, Johanna, a native Parisian, has a nightmare featuring a headless monk who utters the Latin phrase, "Ad accedendum ad caelum, terram fodere opportet" ("You must dig in the earth to reach heaven"). The nocturnal message becomes ingrained in her brain, leading her to an impressive career as an archaeologist studying Romanesque art. A series of fortuitous circumstances lands Johanna on a Mont St. Michel dig, where, bit by bit, she uncovers a murderous, 1,000-year-old tale involving two Benedictine monks and a beautiful Celtic healer who refuses to repent for her pagan ways. (Could there, in fact, be some truth to Johanna's eerie childhood dream?) Despite getting bit too bogged down in historical detail, authors Lenoir and Cabesos have produced an otherwise riveting novel about the precarious consequences of unearthing the past. Allison Block
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