Miss Garnet's Angel [Paperback]

Salley Vickers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2, 2002

After the death of her longtime friend and flatmate, retired British history teacher Julia Garnet does something completely out of character: She takes a six-month rental on a modest appartamento in Venice. An atheist, a Communist, and a virgin, Julia finds herself falling beneath the seductive spell of the city's intoxicating beauty and sensual religiosity. She befriends a young Italian boy and English twins who are restoring a fourteenth-century chapel. And she falls in love for the first time in her life with an art dealer named Carlo.

Juxtaposing Julia's journey of self-discovery with the apocryphal tale of Tobias and the Archangel Raphael, Miss Garnet's Angel tells a lyrical, incandescent story of love, loss, miracles, and redemption . . . and of one woman's transformation and epiphany. Already a bestseller in England, it is "novel-writing at its finest and most eloquent . . . splendid . . . the sort of book that effortlessly, like angels, or sunlight on Venice's rippling waterways, casts brightness and beauty into those private and most shadowed recesses of the human heart" (The Christian Science Monitor).

"Vickers has taken myth, religion, and secular humanism, and turned them into substantial life-affirming fiction." (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

"A refreshing, gentle story." (Anita Brookner)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Guardian angels have attained such trendy status in American popular fiction that it's refreshing to read Vickers, a writer from across the Atlantic, whose subtle depiction of a life touched by a heavenly spirit carries not a hint of clich‚. Her debut novel is an unpretentious gem of a book that charts the late coming-of-age of Miss Julia Garnet, a retired English schoolteacher who spends six months in Venice after her lifelong companion, Harriet, dies. Venice has a magical effect on reserved Julia: a dyed-in-the-wool Communist, she relaxes in her antipathy toward religion, and even begins to visit the local church. There, she becomes enamored of a series of paintings that tell the story of the Apocryphal book of Tobit, a tale that mixes elements of Judaism with the religion of Zoroaster. In the story, young Tobias travels to Medea, part of the Persian Empire, to collect a debt for his father, blind Tobit. He is accompanied on his journey by a hired guide who turns out to be the Angel Raphael. As Julia learns more about Tobias's trek, she embarks upon a soul-altering journey of her own. She falls in love with an art dealer, Carlo, and befriends Sarah and Toby, twins working on the restoration of a Venetian chapel. When Toby disappears suddenly, after discovering a priceless Renaissance painting, Julia finds out that neither Carlo nor the twins are exactly what they seem--but that the Angel Raphael's watchful spirit will help good prevail. (Feb.)Forecast: This touching novel, a sleeper hit in Britain, should win American fans eager for a treatment of religious themes without the gooey sentiment that often accompanies the topic of angels.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

'Subtle, unexpected and haunting.' Penelope Fitzgerald 'Very kind, very funny.' John Bayley 'Writes like a haunted angel.' The Times 'Rich, complex and haunting!she makes the ancient story as riveting as Miss Garnet's own adventures.' Sunday Times 'The sort of novel I really enjoy.' John Bayley Reveals itself as a surprising exploration of the mysteries of imagination and faith.' Joanna Trollope, Daily Telegraph, Book of the Year 'A refreshing, gentle story.' Anita Brookner, Spectator, Book of the Year 'A subtle, witty tale.' John de Falbe, Spectator 'Delightfully affecting.' Julia Neuberger, Independent, Book of the Year 'Destined for a long life.' David Sexton, Evening Standard, Book of the Year 'If you like Penelope Fitzgerald or Barbara Pym, try Salley Vickers.' Sunday Telegraph 'Original and delightful.' Woman's Journal --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Plume (April 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452282977
• ISBN-13: 978-0452282971
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #168,444 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A glowing jewel of a book., March 5, 2003

By 

Beverley Strong (Australia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Miss Garnet's Angel (Paperback)

Retired school teacher, Julia Garnet, is lonely and at a loss with what to do with her life after the death of her flat mate of many years, and decides to spend 6 months in Venice. A confirmed communist, she is amazed at the ease with which she is falling under the spell of the magnificent architecture, especially the churches, which at first she finds decadent, in view of her strict anti-church attitude. She befriends a young couple who are restoring an old chapel and becomes very involved in their lives, as well as meeting- and being totally charmed by a very dashing art dealer- who wines and dines her.Julia falls in love for the first time in her life and is shattered when things don't turn out as well as she'd hoped. I found this book to have an other-worldly feel to it as though Venice itself was responsible for normally prosiac people acting differently, just as if they were somehow charmed and under the influence of old paintings and statues, particularly those of the angel Raphael, whose biblical story interweaves with that of Julia. It's a gem of a book with such a luminous feel to it that I'm sure I'll read it again fairly soon.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A review of this book made it sound quite interesting., March 22, 2001

By 

Monica K. Van Ness (Aurora, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Miss Garnet's Angel: A Novel (Hardcover)

And, though reviews can sometimes lead you astray, this book is a marvelous read! I enjoyed it from beginning to end. To see how far Julia Garnet travels, and how much she learns during this story, moved me. And the changes move along slowly. You aren't battered with them. The reader sees Miss Garnet trying to work things through, so that she can move forward as she needs to. A wonderful character.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and original, March 22, 2005

By 

Catspec "Catspec" (VT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Miss Garnet's Angel (Paperback)

Salley Vickers is one of two writers whose discovery in the last year has once again made me glad I can still find wonderful writing. It is always a delight to discover an author to add to the "must read all they do" list. A few years ago it was Michael Chabon, and I await his next with baited breath, but in the last year there have been Charles Portis ("Masters of Atlantis" and more), and Salley Vickers. I saw this book in the library and read reviews online before reading it. It is NOT a quick and easy read, as someone suggested in these reviews. It is a parallel rendering of the story of Julia Garnet and the biblical book of Tobit, and the point is the realization that our lives aren't as cut and dried as modernity would have us believe. Raphael the Archangel is the central protagonist really, and his presence seems to seep into the story at every turn. How Julie grows and blooms is the surface story, but underneath there is a stream of the ethereal which also runs through Salley Vickers other two books, "Instances of the Number 3" and "Mr. Golightly." I read these two right after this one. I highly recommend them all.