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blodeuedd's review
3.0
This is a book with 3 POVS, and 3 very different women. Juliana, A nun atoning for past sins. Anna, who has a deformity that makes people shun her and who looks to the saint for healing. And Gisele, a princess who is to marry a viking invader, whether she wants it or not.
I know Anna had a really crap time, as people thought the reason she was wrong was cos of some sin. And I felt for her. And yes poor Gisele, but she was a princess after all and princesses marry to build alliances. I felt most sorry for Juliana, because she had been passionate, happy in love and given all that up to become a nun. And in a time when sex before marriage was such a sin, she was troubled even years afterwards.
Some of the time jumps made me a bit confused, but I got over it.
So we have Juliana in a convent dealing with a new abbess. Gisele wondering if God really wants her to marry a heathen. And with her POV we get the politic of the era too. And lastly Anna, who bring a POV of the poor and forgotten as she struggle to get to the convent.
Even if I had already googled Gisele, I was glad for the author's afterwords about who was real or not. Nice touch.
An interesting tale about 3 women caught in different conflicts.
I know Anna had a really crap time, as people thought the reason she was wrong was cos of some sin. And I felt for her. And yes poor Gisele, but she was a princess after all and princesses marry to build alliances. I felt most sorry for Juliana, because she had been passionate, happy in love and given all that up to become a nun. And in a time when sex before marriage was such a sin, she was troubled even years afterwards.
Some of the time jumps made me a bit confused, but I got over it.
So we have Juliana in a convent dealing with a new abbess. Gisele wondering if God really wants her to marry a heathen. And with her POV we get the politic of the era too. And lastly Anna, who bring a POV of the poor and forgotten as she struggle to get to the convent.
Even if I had already googled Gisele, I was glad for the author's afterwords about who was real or not. Nice touch.
An interesting tale about 3 women caught in different conflicts.
monicabhills's review
4.0
I choose this book because it was set in the 10th century and I needed a book set then for a reading challenge. I did not expect what a wonderful book this was. It was about three women all struggling to maintain some type of control in their life. All three of them had to overcome a personal obstacle and all of the women were connected to one another in some way. One story was my favorite and I even teared up at the end. A very enjoyable historical fiction novel.
carolhoggart's review
3.0
The Miracle Thief is set in France of the early 900s, a period of political turmoil, Viking invasion, and a decidedly Dark Age for women’s rights. Charles the Simple sits on a precarious throne, attacked directly by Danish forces under Rollo, and indirectly by his cousin, the Count of Paris. Charles the ‘Straightforward’, however, is not the focus of the novel. Instead, the story moves between the points of view of Juliana, the concubine of Charles’s youth, Giselle, the daughter resulting from that relationship, and Anna, an orphan cursed from birth by a deformed hand. Each woman needs a miracle, and the saint they petition is Catherine, whose finger-bone relic resides at the Abbey of Rochemont.
Gisele, the princess offered in marriage to Rollo as part of the famous bargain for peace that resulted in the Danish possession of Normandy, may or may not have existed historically. Iris Anthony cleverly creates a plausible historical context for a legend. In the process, she most convincingly – and starkly – evokes the powerless position of women and the disabled in tenth-century France.
Less convincing were the two rather hastily developed and concluded romances at the novel’s end. So too, occasional anachronisms cropped up: the Danes ride glorious “Frisian” horses with wavy manes, Gisele hears noises “out of synch”, and the Vikings are stereotypes – all tall, blonde, bearded, wearing furs and bearing axes. In an author’s note, Anthony herself admits that the knight Andulf’s character is chronologically inaccurate. Further, characterisation was occasionally uneven and dialogue confusing.
Nevertheless, The Miracle Thief treats of a fascinating topic within a little-mined historical setting. The near magical power of saints and their relics seems to transport us to a different reality, one in which the miraculous climax of the novel is not at all out of place.
Gisele, the princess offered in marriage to Rollo as part of the famous bargain for peace that resulted in the Danish possession of Normandy, may or may not have existed historically. Iris Anthony cleverly creates a plausible historical context for a legend. In the process, she most convincingly – and starkly – evokes the powerless position of women and the disabled in tenth-century France.
Less convincing were the two rather hastily developed and concluded romances at the novel’s end. So too, occasional anachronisms cropped up: the Danes ride glorious “Frisian” horses with wavy manes, Gisele hears noises “out of synch”, and the Vikings are stereotypes – all tall, blonde, bearded, wearing furs and bearing axes. In an author’s note, Anthony herself admits that the knight Andulf’s character is chronologically inaccurate. Further, characterisation was occasionally uneven and dialogue confusing.
Nevertheless, The Miracle Thief treats of a fascinating topic within a little-mined historical setting. The near magical power of saints and their relics seems to transport us to a different reality, one in which the miraculous climax of the novel is not at all out of place.
bukola's review
3.0
I wanted to read this book as soon as I saw the title. And I enjoyed reading it. Trying to wrap my head around the "miracle thievery" idea though; who really was the Miracle Thief and how did they steal it? I liked reading it, even though it broke my heart a little in the end.
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