Product Description

Set in seventeenth-century France against a backdrop of witch trials, regicide and religious frenzy, this is the story of Juliette, one-time actress and rope-dancer. Forced by circumstance to seek refuge with Fleur, her young daughter, in the remote abbey of Sainte Marie-de-la-Mer, Juliette reinvents herself as Soeur Auguste under the tutelage of the kindly Abbess. But times are changing: the murder of Henri IV becomes the catalyst for massive upheaval in France. A new appointment is made, and Juliette's new life begins to unravel. For the new Abbess is Isabelle, the eleven-year-old child of a corrupt, noble family. Worse, Isabelle has brought with her a ghost from Juliette's past, masquerading as a cleric, a man she has every reason to fear...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #431261 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 432 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Holy Fools is Joanne Harris's most enjoyable novel yet, a beautifully detailed and sharply observed piece that emotionally moves the reader unlike anything she has tackled before. The immense success of Chocolat and Coastliners has made Harris one of the most cherished authors at work today, and each new book is something of an event.

Holy Fools is set in 17th century France, and the central character is Juliette, a former actress and rope dancer who has given up her travelling life to become a teaching nun at a remote abbey. Juliette has settled with her young daughter into an existence very different from that she knew, and she finds comfort from the advice of the wise and friendly abbess.

Harris brilliantly delineates both phases of her heroine's life: the colourful earlier era and the new demands of the semi-cloistered life. Things change radically when the abbess dies and her place is taken by an 11-year-old girl whose appetite for reform quickly destroys much that Juliet has come to love in her new life. What makes the book so refreshingly original is not just the unusual structure (the heroine's dual life alone is handled with radiant detail), but the surprising new trajectory the narrative takes after the death of the abbess, as everything Juliette was used to begins to go wrong.

We become involved in every minor crisis, however much we question that the religious life is the answer to her problems. Juliette is a brilliantly drawn character, and the plotting of this ambitious novel is both thoughtful and invigorating, while the basic theme--the ploys we all use to distract ourselves from the painful realities of existence--is handled with subtlety. --Barry Forshaw

Review
The author of the best-selling Chocolat has produced a moving story set in 17th century France. Juliette, a former actress and rope dancer, has abandoned her travelling life and, with her young daughter, becomes a teaching nun in a remote abbey under the care of the wise abbess. We look back at Juliette's life and her link with the sinister Blackbird named Le Merle, while the abbess dies and in her place is appointed an 11-year-old girl full of the zeal of reform. Everything begins to go wrong in Juliette's tranquil life. A gripping story from start to finish.

Daily Mail
'With this bold, inventive book, Harris confirms her position as one of Britain's most popular novelists...Fresh and compelling'

Customer Reviews

Not Another Joanne Harris Masterpiece
Once again Joanne Harris has written a superb novel, in my opinion it’s the best one yet. She takes you to a small Abbey in a French village where life is comfortable, but something bad is in the air. King Henry is dead and a new Reform is on the way especially with the Church. Old wounds are opened and everyone’s dedication and belief questioned. The story is set over a six-week period where you feel you have read events for the whole day from morning vigils prayers to evening chapter prayers. The end of each day leaves you wanting more. (I couldn’t put this book down and was actually glad when my train was delayed in the mornings). The character Juliette is strong and resourceful, showing that education back then was as uninviting as the devil himself. The life Juliette thinks she is free from finds her and whether it claims her or not you’ll find out when you read it. The other characters are fantastically depicted and life at a nunnery comes across as amusing, difficult and lonely. I loved the detail and felt like I was at the Abbey myself watching events unfold, truths and lies told and emotions left unchecked. There is nothing that I disliked about the book and I recommend it to anyone who loves magic, mystery and suspense.

A review from South Africa
Best-selling novelist Joanne Harris returns to France for her lovely new novel, Holy Fools.
Like Coastliners which precedes it, Holy Fools is set on the French coast, except this time most of the action takes place at an abbey where the main protagonist, Juliette – now living as a nun, Soeur August – has taken refuge with her infant daughter several years before.
Set in the 1600s, it juxtaposes the sometimes extreme religious values held in France at that time, as reflected by the nuns at the abbey of Sainte Marie-de-la-Mer, and those of a rough and secular age, personified by the wandering players of the circus.
Over both of these worlds hovers the spectre of Guy LeMerle, nicknamed the Blackbird – an enigmatic risk-taker who has played a large part in Juliette’s colourful past.
Only he knows that she flew the high-wire as L’Ailée, the winged one, when they travelled the country as performers.
Will he arrive at the abbey and, if so, will it necessarily mean doom for Juliette and her little girl? This solid novel (more than 400 pages) takes the reader on a journey back and forth between Juliette’s two lives and it is not clear until near the end what is going to happen.
As in other Harris novels, religious dogma takes a battering and the free-spirited Juliette is in many ways reminiscent of Vianne Rocher from the gorgeous Chocolat.
Harris writes in a fluid and engaging way, drawing the reader on like a piper ahead of a minstrels’ caravan.
Definitely one for the book club.

Enthralling
The story of Juliet, a former actress and rope dancer who has given up her former life to become a nun with her young daughter, is mysterious and gripping from the start. The unexpected intrusion of her former lover LeMerle to her new life sparks off a twisting, turning story of cunning, treachery and deceit which, when told in the voices of the two main characters, has the reader struggling to decide whose side to take. It is a story which explores the fine line between love and hate, something that Juliet and LeMerle can't ever seem to work out themselves, even at the end of the story. It also broaches the extremely controversial subject of the effect of a good orator on impressionable minds as LeMerle seeks to create havoc in the quiet lives of the nuns with whom he has come to live. One can draw parallels to many occurrences in recent history where influential people can generate a mass hysteria that it is almost impossible for anyone to control.

The one criticism that I have for this book is that it is sometimes very difficult to remember the names of some of the characters and it can sometimes become confusing as to whom the author is referring, however, this does not mar the wonderful energy of the story.

All in all, definitely worth a read.