Joanne Harris has crafted a wonderful piece of fiction. The characters; their motivations and lives are revealed in beautiful prose that draws you into the story.

A community of seventeenth century nuns is disrupted by the death of the Reverend Mother. The new abbess brings change and a man into this world of women, some of whom have used this place as an escape from life outside this isolated place. Religious fervour, mistrust and suspicion escalate. Highly recommended. ( )

sehr spannend - mal ein ganz anderer Thema: Joanne Harris ist immer für Überraschungen gut. Nachdem dieses Buch anfangs ein wenig verwirrend daherkommt (worum gehts hier eigentlich?) als die beiden Hauptfiguren skizziert werden, so wird es immer spannender je mehr sich die Figuren, die sich über die Jahre verloren hatten, wieder aufeinander zubewegen. Juliette ist bei einer Schauspielertruppe aufgewachsen und war damals Wachs in den Händen von LeMerle, des Anführers der Truppe, der sie damals verraten hat. Nachdem sie gerade ncoh ihr Leben retten konnte hat sie sich schwanger in ein Kloster zurückgezogen. Im ersten Teil des Buches beschreibt Juliette ihr bisheriges Leben und den Alltag im Kloster. Doch dann stirbt die Äbtissin und LeMerle taucht als Beichtvater Columbin der neuen Äbtissin, die mal gerade 12 Jahre alt ist, im Kloster auf. Die neue Äbtissin ist eine religiöse Fanatiekrin, die alle bisherigen Regeln im Kloster umstößt. Hierbei wird sie von LeMerle aufgehetzt. Juliette beobachtet das Ganze mit wachsender Sorge, traut sich aber nicht offen zu reagieren, da LeMerle ihr ihre Tochter weggenommen hat. Doch nach und nach errät und durchschaut sie seine grausamen Plan. Dan kommt es zu einem spannenden Finale, indem es darum geht, ob Juliette LeMerle aufhalten kann...Da Harris oft in einem Roman Aspekte eines anderen Buches aufgreift, kann man sich fragen, ob Juliette, die mit ihrer Tochter immer wieder weiterzieht, sich aber gerne irgendwo häuslich niederlassen möchte, die Hauptfigur aus Chocolat ist? Jedenfalls ist das eine interessane Idee, für den Leser, sich seine eigene Forsetzung des Buches zu geben.Ein sehr spannendes Buch, sozusagen ein Page-Turner. Aber insgesamt nicht so romantisch wie ihre früheren Bücher. Es ist auch keine romantische Liebesgeschichte, sondern beschreibt eher, wie zwei Menschen, die sich mal sehr Nahe gestanden haben, sich weiterhin sehr gut kennen und daher wissen, wie sie dem anderen das Leben schwehr mahcen können. Spanned ist die Frage, wer die Oberhand gewinnt oder ob sie sich aus dieser Situation lösen können. Dies schildert Harris in ihrer gewohnt brillianten Art.Auch wenn das Buch anders ist, als ich es nach den bisherigen von Harris erwartet hatte, kann ich das Buch dennoch sehr empfehlen.

Sister Auguste has lived as a nun at Sainte-Marie-de-la-mer for the past five years. She watches with curiosity as the new Abbess and Father Confessor make their way onto the property. But then her curiosity turns to terror. Auguste recognizes the Father Confessor as LeMerle, her former lover. LeMerle once abandoned Auguste, or Juliette as she was known, when a scandal broke out in the town their traveling circus had visited. LeMerle is a master performer. Soon there's all kinds of hysteria in the abbey: spirits of the dead, demonic possession, water into blood, even mysterious deaths. Can Auguste find out what LeMerle is really up to?

Holy Fools once again shows all of the trademarks I come to expect from Harris: small, enclosed community; alternating viewpoints that spiral closer and closer until protagonist and antagonist meet. I really enjoyed LeMerle's passages. I could almost hear him speak them aloud. It's a solid story and it's interesting but it's not my favorite of her works. Maybe it's just too hard for me to relate to 17th century french nuns. ( )

The year is 1610; Henri IV has just been murdered. In a convent on the coast of Brittany, the abbess has just died, and Soeur Auguste and her sister nuns await the arrival of her successor. Mère Isabelle is 12 years old, and accompanying her is Père Colombin, her confessor. But Colombin is really Guy LaMerle, whom Auguste has known in her life before the convent, the life in which she was Juliette, known as l'Ailée, "The Winged One", and they traveled together in an acting troupe. LaMerle had betrayed Juliette and the others to save his own skin, and she thought never to see him again. But now the convent in which she had sought refuge with her daughter will be the stage upon which LaMerle will seek to perform the last act of his plan of vengeance on the Bishop of Évreux, who had damaged and betrayed him years before.

Using the fear of possession and witchcraft, Colombin/LaMerle quickly turns the abbey into a place filled with suspicion, rumor and hysteria. To save herself and her daughter, Juliette must go along with his schemes. And she is driven in part by old feelings of love for him that she must conquer.

Harris writes compellingly of a time that is strange to contemporary minds, with an understanding and sympathy for these women who, for a variety of family and societal reasons, have found their life among other women in the service of God, and who are betrayed, and led to betray each other, by ignorance and religious superstition.

I loved the movie “Chocolat,” based on a book by Joanne Harris. So when I found a deal on “Holy Fools” I jumped at the chance to get to know her work. I’d have to say, this book was an excellent place for me to start. After all, it is set in a convent, and I did grow up Catholic.

Of course, this is no modern convent with girls’ high school attached, but rather a beautifully isolated place in seventeenth century France. The fact that I’ve taken vacations in the area only added to the attraction, and Harris’s descriptions, combined with the old forms of names of towns, brought to life many memories and dreams.

The characters here are no modern nuns either, but a delightful community of misfits seeking solace in a simple life set apart from the world. But their ordered existence is threatened by a figure from Juliette’s past, and Juliette herself cannot expose the deceit without risking losing all she loves.

The weather, the sea, statues and beliefs, rules and cruelties all combine to make this a fascinating tale. The worlds of Juliette’s past and present, of court and coast, complexity and simplicity, even of faith and science, all come to glorious life. Loyalties are tested and stretched to the limit. Forgiveness and fondness fight for dominance. And the dangers faced by an all too human angel have the heart pounding as you read.

I enjoyed the way the author lets us into her characters’ heads, using first-person viewpoints of two very different protagonists, without confusion and without any lessening of the tension created by their secrets. A truly masterful tale; I really loved it. ( )