Vividly recreating life during the Dark Ages, while simultaneously painting a portrait of an unforgettable woman, Pope Joan explores the extraordinary life of an independent, intelligent and courageous woman who overcomes oppression and ascends to the highest religious power (San Francisco Chronicle).
An enthralling, scholarly historical novel.--Rebecca Fraser, author of The Bront s.
Brings the savage ninth century vividly to life in all its alien richness. . .
But such power always comes at a price .
Triumphing over appalling odds, she finally attains the highest office in Christendom--wielding a power greater than any woman before or since.
Eventually, she is drawn to Rome, where she becomes enmeshed in a dangerous web of love, passion, and politics.
As Brother John Anglicus, Joan distinguishes herself as a great scholar and healer.
When her brother is brutally killed during a Viking attack, Joan takes up his cloak--and his identity--and enters the monastery of Fulda.
Brilliant and talented, young Joan rebels against medieval social strictures forbidding women to learn.
Now in this riveting novel, Cross paints a sweeping portrait of an unforgettable heroine who struggles against restrictions her soul cannot accept.
Peter.
She is the legend that will not die--Pope Joan, the ninth-century woman who disguised herself as a man and rose to become the only female ever to sit on the throne of St.
For a thousand years her existence has been denied.
Cross has written an engaging book.-- Los Angeles Times Book Review In this international bestseller and basis for the 2009 movie of the same name , Donna Woolfolk Cross brings the Dark Ages to life in all their brutal splendor and shares the dramatic story of a woman whose strength of vision led her to defy the social restrictions of her day.
Pope Joan has all the elements one wants in a historical drama--love, sex, violence, duplicity, and long-buried secrets.
Vividly recreating life during the Dark Ages, while simultaneously painting a portrait of an unforgettable woman, Pope Joan explores the extraordinary life of an independent, intelligent and courageous woman who overcomes oppression and ascends to the highest religious power (San Francisco Chronicle)
