Lepers Companions [Paperback]

Julia Blackburn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 4, 2000

One morning in 1410, two men from an East-Coast fishing village find a mermaid washed up on the sand. This discovery starts a chain of events that leads four of the villagers on a pilgrimage: across the North Sea to Venice, and then along the Mediterranean coast to the Holy Land.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Julia Blackburn's first novel, The Book of Color, revolved around a curse; her second, however, is all about miracles--double-edged though they might be. The narrator is a nameless woman who has recently lost someone she loved. "What she wanted to do now was to bang the door shut on this present time by setting out on a journey to some distant country and staying there until the present had blurred and shifted and become indistinguishable from the past. But that was not possible." A page later, we discover that, indeed, it is. At first, the narrator imagines herself in a nearby village, walking along the sandy beach or visiting the ancient church, its stones covered in lichen. Then, "one night in the month of February, when the east wind was bitterly cold and she felt so sad she didn't know what to do, she found herself going down the main street of the village." Only now the street is rutted with the tracks of carts, the houses are small and battered and the church is newly built--the past has, indeed, become indistinguishable from the present, for now it is the year 1410.

This is the year a mermaid washes up on the beach, bringing with her, apparently, a litany of disaster: a child born with a fish's head, a dead cow, a creeping blindness. In the village there is a woman beset by devils; a blind shoemaker who goes mad when his sight is restored; a leper who is miraculously cured; a young widow who eats a map and is filled with longing for faraway lands. All, including the narrator, eventually embark on a long and arduous pilgrimage to Jerusalem, from which only two will return. The Leper's Companions is beautifully written and its world of wonders is sufficiently rich to keep one turning the pages until the very end. Yet each event seems curiously isolated from all the rest, giving this novel an episodic feel that leaves the reader wishing for a little more substance beneath the beguiling surface. --Alix Wilber --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Much praised for her elegant writing and originality, British biographer and novelist Blackburn has set a new standard for herself in her exquisite second novel (after The Book of Color). In supple prose, she spins a captivating tale, blending the present-day story of a woman recovering from the loss of someone she loved with the story of a medieval English village. As the novel opens, an unnamed contemporary narrator has found "sanctuary for [her] restless thoughts" in a seaside village, which in her imagination she recreates and repopulates as it must have been more than 500 years ago, in 1410. In the village of her mind dwells a young fisherman, his very young pregnant wife, a shoemaker and his wife, a woman who sees devils, a woman who returns from the dead, a red-haired girl, a red-tongued man and a priest who spends his nights copying out the Book of Revelations. Passing through this village is a leper, knocking his wooden clappers to warn the unsuspecting of his approach. As the narrator imagines them, each of these characters has suffered for love, and their stories could be allegories of love and loss. Magical, even miraculous, things occur in this world saturated with pagan and Christian mythology: a mermaid is washed ashore, a relic (the dried hand of Saint Anthony) saves a life, a blind man regains his sight. In keeping with this spirit, the priest, the shoemaker's wife, the fisherman's wife and the narrator accompany the leper on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, hoping to protect the village from the plague. It is during this journey that the leper's story of lost love, disease and healing emerges. His account quietly harmonizes with the narrator's and ultimately brings resolution to the novel. Perhaps most impressive is Blackburn's keen sympathy for her characters and her sensual evocation of medieval life. While the plot is sometimes digressive and difficult to follow, it's full of satisfying riches. This novel does something quite rare: it takes you someplace new.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (May 4, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099272768
• ISBN-13: 978-0099272762
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,127,239 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, thought provoking and intelligently written, May 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Leper's Companions: A novel (Hardcover)

Julia Blackburn's new novel The Leper' Companions is a work of careful thought and hidden meaning. A woman who has suffered a recent loss creates for herself an imaginary, dreamlike world with roots in the 1400s. Throughout most of the book, the author is tangently present in this made-up world and only occassionaly are we reminded that this story is going on only in her mind. I recommend the book based on it's interesting character development. Many would say the end is somewhat anti-climatic, but I believe the author left it so intentionally. All in all a good afternoon's read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Coping with Grief, October 25, 2001

By 

"jasonharvey777" (Richmond, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Leper's Companions: A Novel (Paperback)

When one goes through a hell of an ordeal (an indelible memory left etched on a soul) how does one cope with it's affects? This is a question that Julia Blackburn explores in The Leper's Companions.

In her story, time plays an important part of her character's dealing with the grief she's experienced. When the story opens the narrator is in the present, in a state of mourning for the loss of a loved one. Someone who has been lost to her for an indefinite amount of time. It seems only appropriate that from then on the narrator finds herself far in the past, observing the life and trials of people seemingly far removed from her experience.

It is as if, she, by focusing on their lives each in order, is some how also focusing on corresponding aspects of
her own life and grief. She does this in a such a quiet way it's almost easy to forget that she's there observing things. There is such a quietness about this process that it is if your were embarking on it with her and were seeing the people for yourself. You go on this journey with her and when she reaches the place she was going to you have to.

I think this is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. It's flow and message have left me much to ponder. It has given me much insight on how we deal with and get rid of the grief we carry inside.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a spellbinding parable, May 30, 2002

By 

Rebecca Brown "rebeccasreads" (Clallam Bay, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Leper's Companions: A novel (Hardcover)

I really liked Julia Blackburn's little book. It is exquisitely written in lean & learned detail, & carries the Reader off into another time & another place where our ancestors tried to make sense of what they saw, believed & felt.

This is a rare book to encounter about what it might have been like to live 800 years ago on the coast of a sparsely-settled land, where a new religion interfaces with the old, where life is so fragile before the onslaught of the weather, relationships are infused with hallucinations, & pilgrimages to the Holy Land undertaken in dire poverty & total surrender.

THE LEPER'S COMPANIONS is about a grieving woman & her travel through that hurt into healing.

A pearl of a parable that glows with authenticity, & I hope it comes into reprint so that it can thrill others as it did me. Until then go hunt up a used copy, I'm not selling mine!