Customer Reviews

In the Company of Angels: A Novel

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"In the Company of Angels" is a lush and beautiful novel. It is hypnotic and evocative, gorgeous and harrowing. It is certainly one of the very best books I've read in a long, long time.

Marie Claire is a small French Jewish girl who lives with her grandmother in a Belgian village near the border of France. In fact, Tournai was once a part of France, itself, and its ties to Christianity are strong. As Kelby so lyrically writes, "Conquered by the French, it was thought more beautiful than Paris. Conquered by the English, it was the favored city of King Henry the Eighth. It was also a city of God, or so it was said." Certainly the people of Tournai see God. They see Him in their prayers and they see Him in the everyday stuff of life: The baker sees God in a cherry tart, the barber sees the Virgin's face on the floor of his shop and the butcher finds a small cross in the belly of a lamb. Yet, the people of Tournai are not happy; they feel that somehow, for some unknown reason, God has deserted their beautiful and loving village.

Marie Claire's grandmother was known for her beautiful garden and cultivating flowers was her hobby. In fact, she names a rare black iris in Marie Claire's honor, because the little girl's hair is so very black. Marie Claire, like generations of the Durrieu family before her, lives a life that is as deeply rooted in the soil as are the beautiful flowers she is learning to tend. When World War II encroached upon their village, however, Marie Claire finds that her world is shattered.

Two Belgian nuns, a Mother Superior and a young postulant, find Marie Claire hiding in the root cellar and they take her to their convent. There, in a town scented with the chocolates for which it is famous, the miracles of love that surrounded Marie Claire and saved her from capture by the Nazis, continue. Miracles that are always accompanied by the overpowering scent of roses.

The two nuns, who are the only surviving Sisters of His Divine and Most Sacred Blood, are Sister Xavier and Sister Anne. These sisters have secrets of their own. Sister Xavier's parents are involved in genetic studies for the Third Reich. In addition, one of Sister Xavier's closest friends has suffered greatly at the hands of a commander in Hitler's army. And Sister Xavier does not plan to let these crimes go unpunished.

Sister Anne is a woman dealing with ghosts. Far from being involved with Hitler, Sister Anne's parents were the victims of love. Her mother was, perhaps, a hysteric, and her father was a man too weak to protect his own daughter from the woman he loved. And then there is the street artist. Sister Anne must deal with his ghost as well.

This is a book in which ghosts inhabit space side by side with the living. "The dead walk," Kelby writes, "the living rot away inch by inch...logic no longer applies." Logic certainly doesn't apply in this beautiful, but grim, story, so reminiscent of a fairy tale, and we are glad it doesn't. Lost in the mystery of faith and the horror or war, both saint and sinner continue to love. Tournai was, after all, a city of four hundred bells. God might be hiding, but how could he not be hiding among them?

This is an extraordinarily poetic book; I don't think it would have worked had it been written any other way. Kelby's prose is spare but metaphorical, and it is perfect for her subject matter. She really makes us feel the fear, the love, the loss, the betrayal, the forgiveness. We can see the death and the destruction, we can smell the chocolates and the roses.

Who would have guessed that in such a slim novel one could find the strands of so many lives and so many emotions woven into so many different patterns? Much of what this book details is unspeakable: unspeakable sorrow, unspeakable hope, unspeakable horror, unspeakable love. Kelby tells her hypnotic story as though she were relating a dream; each word she chooses seems to be the perfect one for this small but powerful, yet somehow, ethereal novel.

This is an exquisite book but one that is sometimes almost too painful too read...and, at other times, too beautiful. Once you pick up this harrowing, yet luminous book you will not be able to put it down. You will have to know how, and why, and who, brought God back to Tournai. But you will not find out until this book's very last pages. Kelby writes of the most sublime spirituality without a trace of the sentimentality usually found in such a book. And, the ending will definitely surprise you. It will surprise you and it will not let you go. "In the Company of Angels" is a book that will haunt both your waking and dreaming hours long after you've finished the very last page; you will be glad that it does.

"In times of war, the line between 'what is' and 'what is no longer' becomes confused," says the omniscient and poetic narrator of the future award winning first novel of N. M. Kelby. The smell and texture of fine chocolate, the oddity of black irises, the stench of smoke, the roar of war planes convey a heady realism, but something much stronger pulls us into this world of the bell-laden city of Tournai, Belgium during the horrible years toward the end of the war. "In times of war, logic no longer applies." What does apply and miraculously survive are various human loves (nuns for God and for each other; a man and a woman who should be bitter enemies; a community for its few survivors) and the mysterious ways of God (light shining from the palms of a beautiful traumatized child, perhaps an angel; doves fluttering from napkins; an elderly German nun, dead, meeting her parents in their field; a beautiful red headed woman who, angelic herself for all her rich corporality and love of chocolate, claims to have "saved an angel of God," a Jewish child ("How can she be an angel of God?". . ."That is the question you must ask yourself," she answers). And that is but one question the reader must ask too. The slim, gripping novel begs us: "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."

IN THE COMPANY OF ANGELS is a gorgeously written and moving meditation on the transcendant power of love and faith. The language is exquisite and reads like poetry. Comparisons to Anne Michaels' FUGITIVE PIECES come to mind, but I think Kelby is better and her work rings truer. Kelby marries Jewish and Catholic mysticism in a narrative steeped in magical realism. However, unlike the prose of Latin American magical realists such as Marquez and Isabel Allende, Kelby's prose often seems a little too ethereal and not quite grounded enough. Some readers may also find the book a touch too sentimental and melodramatic in places. Many highly charged scenes loaded with pyrotechnics and special effects (a nun setting fire to herself, a woman wrapping rose thorns around her breasts) pile up on top of each other, possibly overwhelming the reader and ultimately taking the power away from these scenes. If Anne appears to be weeping on nearly every page, then what power can these tears have on the reader? The German Commander (although a major player, he isn't given a name) appears as a stock character. However, this is a brave and risk-taking book and the author deserves credit for her vision and courage. The ending is absolutely sublime.

This is one of the most amazing, uplifting books I've had the pleasure to read in the last few years. The book is extremely dreamlike and very cinematic -- in the hands of a sensitive director, this would make a memorable, extraordinary film.

Marie Claire is a seven year-old Jewish girl, living in a small village in France, near the Belgian border. The time is World War II. She is an orphan -- she was forced to watch as the Nazis stood her parents in the village fountain and shot them, their blood flowing over and over through the fountain for all to see. Marie Claire is being raised by her grandmother, who breeds beautiful hybrid roses and irises. Her village is bombed, destroying almost everything, and killing everyone except this amazing child. She returns to the ruins of her grandmother's home and hides herself in the cellar, covering herself up to her neck with dirt, afraid of being discovered by the Nazis. After several days, she is found by two nuns from a convent just across the border in Belgium, who have come in search of survivors. They are amazed to find her alive -- and they are puzzled by many things about her, including the ever-present scent of roses. When they take her back with them to their convent, miracles begin to occur, centered around the young girl. At first the sisters think they are imagining things -- but as events transpire and unfold, they come to believe that 'the child saved is an angel of God', a prophecy told by the mother of one of the nuns.

The author's style is a gently flowing stream of images. She uses an incredible economy of words to convey so much in this wonderful first novel. I read this book twice in succession last week, and I could find not a single sentence in excess -- a remarkable achievement, extremely effective and deeply moving.

The story told here deals with some of the most horrific brutality that men have ever perpetrated on their fellow human beings -- but there is a beauty here as well, a gentle affirmation of faith and hope. This is an absolutely beautiful work of art -- tender and at the same time astonishingly powerful.

This book was way more than I thought it would be. Little Marie Claire is left alone and is saved by some nuns. Every time the nuns are with her they are overwhelmed by the smell of roses and she causes strange things to happen. The nuns must do all they can to save Marie Claire because she is Jewish. It is a very touching tale of love and miracles during WWII. I have to say that the last part of the book is the best. The entire book is dreamlike and will leave you speechless.

In times of wars throughout history (and we are in such a time at this moment) tales of miracles, reports of spiritual or celestial sightings arise out of the need to find meaning to the irrational state of fear, chaos, and terror. If ever there were a need for guardian angels it is in such times. And N.M. Kelby has created a clerical Mystery in her novel IN THE COMPANY OF ANGELS. This novel tells a fine story but it is told almost in the form of an epic poem.

Tournai, Belgium 1940 is the setting and the characters who prepare this mystery play and perform it include a little Jewish girl (Marie Claire) and her grandmother/botanist, a chocolatier (Remy) and his wife (who is either mad or spiritually enlightened, depending on your stance)and daughter (Anne) who is a novitate in a convent decimated by the Nazi bombings leaving alive only Anne and Mother Xavier who head the Resistance in helping Jews escape the Holocaust. The other character is the Commander seeking destruction of the convent and the Resistance, little knowing that his much loved Anne known in his earlier times is part of the convent. The entire story takes a turn from calamity to whispers of salvation when Marie Claire is rescued by the nuns and begins to work her angelic miracles on the town of a hundred bells, the holy place of God called Tournai. The author weaves a beautiful web of intrigue, love, fear, passion, and resurrection among these unforgetable characters. No words are wasted: every line, every poetic utterance enhances this small story about how we choose to live our lives and how we grapple with our destinies and our spiritual journeys. In any other author's hands this would be a maudlin soap opera for a B movie. In Kelby's intensely personal style it becomes a parable. Highly Recommended. Thank you Sue, for introducing me to this experience.

IN THE COMPANY OF ANGELS is a lovely, thought-provoking, and haunting story. I couldn't put it down, and found myself rereading passages that were brilliant and moving. I absolutely loved the scene with the Commander in the chocolate factory, the description of the truffles on the white paper lace--visually horrifying. The settings, the circumstances, the action of the characters are so telling, so real. Ms. Kelby has done a beautiful job weaving this magical story together. Tying up all the loose ends, staying true to the theme, describing the horrors of the holocaust in a subtle, yet compelling manner, all the way to the more than satisfying conclusion. I look forward to reading her next novel.

From the opening scene, I was hooked. Then, author N.M. Kelby pulled me through a slipstream between reality and greater reality, Here and There. In the Company of Angels is deceptively brief. But like poetry, each word, phrase and image is loaded with deep meaning. This eerie, sweet, sad, horrible and beautiful story is loaded with small feasts for the imagination. I can speak for the book's haunting quality; the characters have not left me yet.

Words seem to simple to describe this luminous, miraculous little book. The story of Marie Claire who is sheltered by Belgian nuns during the occupation of Belgium by the Germans is utterly unique and beautifully written. The characters are so well described that I felt as though I knew them. In all of my reading I have never felt my soul touched by a book -- everyone should read this book and believe in miracles!

I just finished IN THE COMPANY OF ANGELS--I'm breathless. Illuminating in the manner of poetry, haunting in the manner of myth--yet so compelling I read it in a day, forgetting the world. Weeping, smiling, laughing--and deeper: redeemed in some mysterious way. N. M. Kelby: what a precious gift you have given us. Thank you, thank you, thank you.