Joan

Joan

Katherine J. Chen

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Girl. Warrior. Heretic. Saint? A stunning secular reimagining of the epic life of Joan of Arc, in the bold tradition of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall 1412. France is mired in a losing war against England. Its people are starving. Its king is in hiding. From this chaos emerges a teenage girl who will turn the tide of battle and lead the French to victory, an unlikely hero whose name will echo across the centuries. In Katherine J. Chen's hands, the myth and legend of Joan of Arc is transformed into a flesh-and-blood young woman: reckless, steel-willed, and brilliant. This deeply researched novel is a sweeping narrative of her life, from a childhood steeped in both joy and violence to her meteoric rise to fame at the head of the French army, where she navigates both the perils of the battlefield and the equally treacherous politics of the royal court. Many are threatened by a woman who leads, and Joan draws wrath and suspicion from all corners, even as her first taste of fame and glory leave her vulnerable to her own powerful ambition. With unforgettably vivid characters, transporting settings, and action-packed storytelling, Joan is a thrilling epic, a triumph of historical fiction, as well as a feminist celebration of one remarkable—and remarkably real—woman who left an indelible mark on history.


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    Joan is everything I love in a book. The writing in this is BEAUTIFUL — you cannot read this without viscerally seeing and feeling exactly what is being described. The type of book that you are sad to finish because you stop temporarily living in the world created. And the world created is not a kind one, but it is so real and it feels so incredibly human that you feel yourself weaved into it.


    In truth, I knew nothing of Joan of Arc before reading Joan, except for her name. What I do know, and what I hold as a fundamental truth is this: history has been written by men and in this case, Catholic men. We will never have a truth about Joan (or any number of brilliant women of the past) because her name, her story, her life, her legend, has been shaped and filtered and manipulated by those in power and by those with an agenda: a conservative patriarchy with tidy boxes for girls and women to fit into. Joan was only a girl and I would like to believe she was the girl in this book. A kind yet brutal girl, never not accompanied by bruised knees and a cut lip and a relentless force of life so difficult to contain that she had to be burned at the stake. Fuck yeah, women ✊🏻

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