Holy Fools: A Novel

By Joanne Harris

Joanne Harris, bestselling author of Chocolat, presents her most accomplished novel yet -- an intoxicating concoction that blends theology and reason, deception and masquerade, with a dash of whimsical humor and a soupçon of sensuality.

Britanny, 1610. Juliette, a one-time actress and rope dancer, is forced to seek refuge among the sisters of the abbey of Sainte Marie-de-la-mer. Reinventing herself as Soeur Auguste, Juliette makes a new life for herself and her young daughter, Fleur.

But when the kindly abbess dies, Juliette's comfortable existence begins to unravel. The abbey's new leader is the daughter of a corrupt noble family, and she arrives with a ghost from Juliette's past -- Guy LeMerle, a man she has every reason to fear and hate.

This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Oct 13, 2009
• ISBN: 9780061865879

Joanne Harris

Joanne Harris is the author of seven previous novels—Chocolat, Blackberry Wine, Five Quarters of the Orange, Coastliners, Holy Fools, Sleep, Pale Sister, and Gentlemen & Players; a short story collection, Jigs & Reels; and two cookbook/memoirs, My French Kitchen and The French Market. Half French and half British, she lives in England.

Reviews for Holy Fools

[sianpr · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A ripping yarn with a cast of nuns, travelling players, an Abbess, a Bishop and a priest who is not what he seems, set in an Abbey in 17th Century France. Strong female lead character in Juliette, aka Souer Auguste. After lots of twists and turns all comes good in the end.

[smits_52 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A fun romp through the 16th century with nuns, mystic symbolism, gypsys, theatre troops, and lots of adventure leading to a grand finality.

[auntie0nanuuq · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Oh my this was so much better than the last book I read by this author....So much better that I didn't skip any parts and I read it in one day.

Soeur Auguste has been living a quiet convent life for the past five years with her daughter. In her previous life, Soeur Agust was the high rope dancer L'Ailee/Juliett and kept company with the infamous LeMerle, a man of darkness & conjuring talents.

While in town watching a traveling theatrical troupe, a large Black Bird appears with a fleeting glimpse of LeMerle. The darkness of her past, which has been foretold in the Tarot is about to come at her full-force...

I have one comment: the Tarot she uses (in every book) ALWAYS turn up the Same Cards....... I think that's redundant and gives people with no knowledge of Tarot an incorrect impression.

All the same, I completely enjoyed the book...the tension was gripping and had me in its thrall.

[neal_-266394 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Wish I had a cantrip to make this one disappear.

[smiler69 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Soeur Auguste, once known for her stage name of "l'Ailée" (The Winged One) has found sanctuary at the Abbey of Sainte Marie-de-la-mer since 1605 when she arrived there pregnant and made a home for herself and daughter. The Reverend Mother was a kind and lax woman, and many of the sisters were not of a religious disposition, much like Soeur Auguste herself, which allowed her a comfortable position there, tending the herb garden and making healing potions for the sisters which she has learned how to make since her gipsy childhood and from her friendship with an old Jewish sage and alchemist. But now it is five years later, and in 1610 many changes are about, and Soeur Auguste keeps a journal of the daily changes going on at the Abbey. The Reverend Mother at the age of 73—a very elderly woman in the 17th century—has suddenly perished, and soon arrives a twelve-year-old child, the niece to a powerful Bishop, to replace her. At first none of the sisters are willing to believe this child will be their leader, but she quickly makes her position clear: she is intent on bringing many reforms and bringing order and strict religion back to the Abbey. This child, the Abbess Isabelle, is not alone either, accompanying her is her personal confessor and spiritual guide, one ostensibly called Père Colombin. But Soeur Auguste, once called Juliette, knows him by quite another name. She knows him as Guy LeMerle, for he was once her lover, ten years her senior and the leader of a troupe of actors and performers, who abandoned her and the whole troupe in a town in the midst of a great commotion when they were accused of brining the plague to save his own skin. That was the last time she had seen him. Now he is at the Abbey for what can only be a dangerous scheme that only Soeur Auguste can uncover to save herself and her daughter... and the sisters. As I am a fan of Joanne Harris and have previously enjoyed historical fiction set in the middle ages and in convents and abbeys, too, I was pretty much grabbed by this story from the first. There was enough scandal and drama throughout to keep things going at a good clip, but I must say I was disappointed by the ending, which came down to a choice Juliette had to make and which I cannot reveal for obvious reasons. I'm not sure why Harris made that choice as a writer. Possible spoiler: Perhaps to give her Juliette a depth of character that transcends mere logic and feminist agendas. That's enough for me to make my peace with it.

[mbmackay · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good story well told. Starts as a slow paced convent story from France in 1609 but ends quicker - almost a thriller. Very good.Read Jan 2005

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Easy to read and fun. Joanne Harris' books are always wonderful, though ever since reading Chocolat I tend to think of them like the Belgian chocolates shaped like shells: very sweet, but you can have too much. There are some gorgeous descriptions.

The themes and characters, though, are quite similar to those in Joanne Harris' other work. Juliette shares a lot of characteristics with Vianne; Fleur with Anouk. Juliette's cantrips and her herbs are very reminiscent of Vianne. LeMerle is very like Mose from Sleep, Pale Sister. Etc. The only book of hers that, to me, stands out as quite different from the others is Runemarks, which is based on a different sort of mythology altogether.

I think if I read Joanne Harris' books all at once, the similarities would be too much. As light reading in between other books, though, it's lovely.

[bhowell_35 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An excellent read, taking place in early 17th century France.

[christinelstanley · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Evocative, beautifully written and totally compulsive

[pharrm_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A young beautiful trveler of circus fame finds herself pregnant and retires after a political religious uproar to a quiet abby life as a nun. Her Head abbess dies and is replaced by a child of a prominent family. Her daughter is now 5. The religious man accompanying the new abbess is a man from her past and wants to crush the church and a particular family and maybe our protagonist as well. The child is ued as hostage.

[sheiladeeth_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[craso_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Juliette is a high wire dancer in Guy LeMerle's traveling show. When they travel to Epinal, France for a religious festival, LeMerle is accused of witchcraft and causing an outbreak of the plague. He escapes, but one of the shows performers is murdered and the rest of the group is left to fend for themselves. Juliette starts a new life in the abbey of Sainte Marie-de-la-mer as Soeur Auguste with her daughter Fleur. When the mother superior dies LeMerle appears at the abbey as Pere Colombine, a father confessor, along with Mere Isabelle, the new twelve year old mother superior. They claim they are there to make reforms. This is a recipe for disaster. Is the abbey infested with demons or is LeMerle manipulating the situation as a cruel act of revenge? This tale reminds me of a true story of a priest named Urbain Grandier who was burned at the stake at Loudun, France in 1634. Aldous Huxley wrote a non-fiction book about this supposed demonic possession of an Ursuline convent called “The Devils of Loudun.”This novel covers some of the same themes as Loudun; superstition, seduction and religious fanaticism. The nuns are all easily susceptible to LeMerle’s charms. They vie for his attention and would do anything for him including murder. He has the power to whip them into a religious frenzy. I enjoyed this novel all the way until the end. I don’t want to spoil it so let’s just say that the main characters are not changed by there experiences.

[bookswamp · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

a medieval love/crime mystery, entertaining as always with Joanne Harris

[tjarda_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Julliette was once an artist. Now she lives peacefully with her vife year old daughter in a cloister as a nun, but than the old leader of the cloister dies and a twelve year old girl comes to replace her. And , horror of horrors, the man formerly known as her not so trustable lover shows up.I did like this story, but did not come close to Chocolat, which is, to my opinion, her best novel.

[budababy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is an intriguing story set in 1610 about deception and revenge. I love Harris's style in general, but felt this one was over-crafted and repetitive, and felt nothing for the characters.

[mbergman_15 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was, in some ways, a better book than her earlier, more popular one, Chocolat, although its darkness was unrelieved by the lightness that chocolate brought to the earlier book. And this one, like that one, was the story of an itinerant single mom with a young child who settles temporarily in a small community (this time an isolated convent) & runs afoul of the community's rigid residents & traditions. That description mostly fits both books; perhaps she should stretch herself a little more next time than simply moving her story back 4 centuries in time.

[feralchicken · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I found it difficult to understand the relationship between Juliette and Guy, and this made the story fairly implausible in places. Harris couldn't seem to decide whether Juliette was the strong woman she set her up to be through her childhood, or someone dependent on a man to take charge.The story kept my interest and I raced through the last third of the book, but the ending felt hurried and cliched.

[wanderlust_lost · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Joanne Harris has done it again. Very impressive! This is a novel about a woman and her daughter living in a medieval convent in France. The story is similar to many of Harris\'s works and full of occult symbolism and references to magick and myth. The story is well written and very powerful. It\'s romantic without being trite and fantastical without going over the top. It was a throughly enjoyable, and a quick read and I\'d recommend it to anyone, particularly fans of Chocolat.