Frost In May
Antonia White author Elizabeth Bowen editor Tessa Hadley editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Little, Brown Book Group
Published:3rd Aug '06
Should be back in stock very soon
*'Frost in May is the unsurpassed novel of convent school life' Hermione Lee, Observer
Nanda Gray, the daughter of a Catholic convert, is nine when she is sent to the Convent of Five Wounds. Quick-witted, resilient and eager to please, she accepts this closed world where, with all the enthusiasm of the outsider, her desires and passions become only those the school permits. Her only deviation from total obedience is the passionate friendships she makes.
Convent life is perfectly captured - the smell of beeswax and incense; the petty cruelties of the nuns; the eccentricities of Nanda's school friends.
Frost in May is the unsurpassed novel of convent school life. This story of a clash between a determined young girl and an authoritarian regime is both perceptive and painfully emotional, convincing in every detail -- Hermione Lee * Observer *
Evelyn Waugh called [her] one of the very best novelists of the day - a title she still deserves -- Carol Shields
Intense, troubling, semi-miraculous ... IT is not the only school story to be a classic; but I can think of no other that is a work of art * Elizabeth Bowen *
A masterpiece. Beautifully written, it is a calm and factual record of the slow death of the soul -- Selina Hastings
A small masterpiece, the compelling and passionate story of young girls at a repressive religious school, told with such lyricism and elegant economy, such subtle understanding -- Tessa Hadley
ISBN: 9781844083787
Dimensions: 197mm x 129mm x 15mm
Weight: 164g
224 pages