A Stolen Tongue [Paperback]

Sheri Holman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 8, 2008

A riveting mystery that recalls the work of Umberto Eco and Barry Unsworth, A Stolen Tongue is the captivating debut novel that launched critically acclaimed author Sheri Holman’s literary career.

In 1483, Father Felix Fabri sails from Germany to Mount Sinai on a pilgrimage to venerate the relics of Saint Katherine of Alexandria. But at each of the shrines he visits throughout Greece and Palestine, he finds that the remains of Katherine’s body are being stolen piece by piece: her hand, her ear, and then her tongue vanish from their holy resting places. Desperate to discover the thief and save his saint from such appalling desecration, Felix is thrust into a strange mystery that takes him across the desert and plumbs the depths of his soul.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The narrator of Sheri Holman's debut novel, A Stolen Tongue is Father Felix Fabri, a 15th-century monk on a pilgrimage to Alexandria, Egypt, to visit his "wife," Saint Katherine. The fact that Katherine is long dead, her various body parts distributed among reliquaries from Greece to Palestine, does not dilute Felix's passion for his spiritual mate. Indeed, from the day he first offered himself to her as a boy, it has been his life's ambition to travel to the Sinai, where she was martyred, visiting each relic along the way. But every time Felix arrives at one of these holy places, he finds a piece of Katherine gone. First her hand, then her ear, then her tongue--all stolen.

This historical mystery has many charms, not least among them Father Felix himself. Ms. Holman has done both the actual historic figure and her novel a great service by occasionally allowing this unique individual to speak in his own words (translated from the Latin by the late Aubrey Stewart) on such subjects as "Why the Eucharist May Not Be Celebrated on Shipboard" or "The Rules for Pilgrimage." It is a testament to the author's skill that the seams stitching together the fictional Felix and the historic one are well-nigh invisible. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Widely varied notions of faith and mission, from the conventional to the bizarre, color this intriguing historical thriller about a 15th-century pilgrimage from Germany to Mt. Sinai. The narrative takes the form of a journal kept by Dominican Father Felix Fabri, beginning at sea in 1483. Felix seeks to visit the relics of his spiritual wife, St. Katherine of Alexandria, on whom he has developed a fixation that might strike contemporary readers as not being entirely in keeping with his vows?though such eroticized spirituality was not uncommon at the time. As pieces of Katherine's body disappear from churches along his party's route, Felix faces a troubling mystery made more strange by the appearance of a young woman named Arsinoe, whose possibly mad communications with the saint have earned her the sobriquet, Tongue of St. Katherine. The pilgrims' voyage is arduous enough, but with the added intrigue of the disappearing relics, and conflicts that try Felix's faith and corrupt his judgment, they will be pushed to the brink of despair. First-novelist Holman pulls her readers along with odd riddles and careful suspense. As absorbing as is her portrayal of the premodern world is, her feel for timeless ironies is also sure: Felix decries the strange, unholy ways of the "Saracens" while he searches for his dead "wife," whose dried-out tongue he keeps in a pouch around his neck. While the plot's resolution is a bit unsatisfying, this is a strong debut, an often enthralling yarn that draws the reader right in among the pilgrims on their harrowing trek.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 343 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; Reprint edition (July 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802143792
• ISBN-13: 978-0802143792
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,135,399 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No Fat Guys in Tights Here, March 23, 1999

By 

Donald S. Willis (Columbia, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Stolen Tongue (Paperback)

If you think "A Stolen Tongue" is going to dish up some musty old history of the Middle Ages, with chanting monks, swooning princesses and gallant young men on prancing steeds, you've got it all wrong. The main character, Felix Fabri, starts out by overseeing a group of galley slaves who fish a bloated, drowned German guy out of a harbor and parade him through the streets of town to his burial site. Later on, he helps a cohort slice open another dead guy and pull out his intestines. And all through this book there is plenty of vomit, rotten things, people burned alive, human waste, worm-infested water, decaying bodies, hacked-off limbs, pus-filled wounds -- and there's Fabri's beloved Saint Katherine, whose decapitated body shoots out milk instead of blood. Oh, and Fabri carries a dried human tongue around in a pouch that he wears around his neck. Not that I choose books by their gore-index mind you. I simply say all this to drive home the point that the events Holman describes are vividly corporeal. The reader is drawn close to the action and really sees, hears, smells (usually gross smells, by the way), tastes (also often nasty) and touches the things the characters encounter. I love to read about life in other eras, and this book, along with being a great read, put me right into the center of the action. And lo and behold if I didn't learn more than a few interesting facts about medieval life, too!

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a Historical Novel Should be!, September 8, 2000

By 

Melinda Harrison "Fables and Fairy Tales" (Mississippi) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Stolen Tongue (Paperback)

I've read some wonderful books this year, but the one which sticks in my mind is The Stolen Tongue. Friar Felix is one of the most finely etched characters in historical fiction. And wow!--what a journey he goes on. Felix is on a pilgrimage to the Sinai desert to meet with his spiritual wife, Saint Katherine. Along the way, we have relics, lots of relics, lice, mad men and women, devotion, love, prayer, and of course, death-- all written in fine detailed language! It's one journey I won't easily forget and Sheri Holman writes it with great skill. She is easily one of the best writers I have read. Don't miss this book. It's a great story.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The TONGUE speaks to me, March 13, 2000

By 

Dr. Steve Irving - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Stolen Tongue (Paperback)

A STOLEN TONGUE is a brilliant first novel. The complexity of character, motive, setting, and intrigue is technically magnificent, and the rich historical fabric and the philosophical/theological asides are nothing short of ingenious.

The emotional involvement of Friar Felix with an idealized St. Katherine and her demented avatar, The Tongue, compel the reader into the novel's underlying sense of spirituality, while the matter-of-fact descriptions of everyday fifteenth century hardship ground that spiritual mood in a real and very difficult world.

I read this novel after THE DRESS LODGER and was immensely pleased at the differences in narration, setting, and overall mood between the two books. Ms. Holman is a very talented author.