Forced by circumstance to seek refuge with Fleur, her young daughter, in the remote abbey of Saint 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 and 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...
Joanne Harris is half-French, half-English. Born in Yorkshire in 1964, she lived with her parents and English grandparents above the family sweetshop until she was three. As a child, Joanne spent holidays in France with her French maternal grandparents and extended family. They came from Vitr