Katherine J. Chen

“It is as if Chen has crept inside a statue and breathed a soul into it, re-creating Joan of Arc as a woman for our time.”—Hilary Mantel, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Booker Prize winner Wolf Hall Girl. Warrior. Heretic. Saint? From the acclaimed author of Mary B comes a stunning, secular reimagining of the epic life of Joan of Arc. 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, becoming 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 meticulously 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 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, while her first taste of fame and glory leaves 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.

Joan: A Novel of Joan of Arc

Laura Mei

The key is to stay alive. If you still have breath in you, there is every chance tomorrow will be better. One day, she thinks, I'll leave Domrémy. Some people are born in a place, and they are never able to see past its fences, its hedgerows, and its fields. They reach the last furrow of the last acre, the edge of the forest, and turn around, go home. They live beneath the same patch of sky and wait for clouds or good weather or rain to come to them. But not me. She tells herself, I'll search out my own weather. I'll plunge into the unknown wood.

[Joan] thinks she understands the purpose of the story. This must be what happens when you leave your home, travel, and see the world. Little by little, you begin to change, even if you are not aware of it. What was once alien becomes familiar: foreign tongues, the music of strange instruments, the vagaries of the sea. Slowly you alter until the very stars that spin in the heavens are as familiar to you as the lines of your own hand. But first you must step out your front door. You must leave behind what you know and possibly what you love. You must be willing to lose every inch of yourself, for the next time you look into a stream or a mirror, which may be weeks, years, or half a lifetime from now, you will not recognize your reflection. You must risk this much in order to gain what the world is ready to offer.

It is his last lesson to Joan: how you should approach life when its fists are pummeling you. Head up. Shoulders back. Your heart may be breaking, but you don't let it show, not on your face or in your eyes. You walk with a spring in your step toward a destination yet unknown.

What is it about our early years, Joan thinks, that leaves its indelible mark? A slap, a punch, a violent shake stays in a child's memory like kernels planted in new earth, and from these seeds spring sometimes bitterness, sometimes violence, other times fear. For what is put in a child's heart will never grow there of its own accord. So, we must be careful. We must, if we can, be tender.

"Which one interests you most? he asks. "Because to hold a book, even to open it, is an experience in itself. If I showed you a beautiful tapestry, such as the ones that hang in your rooms, wouldn't you want to run your fingers up and down the cloth? Wouldn't you marvel at the level of detail, the head of a deer peeping out over a hedge, each hound's tooth perfectly threaded? It is no different with books. They are works of art."

You must have faith the journey you started on was always the journey you were meant to take. Whatever has happened before, you must trust in the future.

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