- Hardcover
- Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press; First Edition edition (1997)
- ASIN: B0028QAVM6
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
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A Stolen Tongue
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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,
By
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!,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
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,
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.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
We are separated from death by the span of only four fingers, those of us at sea; and from what I can tell, it is that certain knowledge, more than any monster or misfortune, that terrorizes pilgrims on their ships. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
yellow turban, lone scholar, dream church, torrent bed Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Lord Tucher, Ser Niccolo, Saint Katherine, Friar Felix, Father Guardian, Emelia Priuli, Mount Sinai, Holy Sepulchre, John Lazinus, Abbot Fuchs, Ursus Tucher, Peter Ber, Holy Land, Andromeda's Rocks, Saint Jerome, Jesus Christ, Saint Paul, Saint Peter's Cellars, Saint John's Eve, Elysian Fields, Red Sea, Constantine Kallistos, Archdeacon John, The Franciscan, Saint Augustine Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
We are separated from death by the span of only four fingers, those of us at sea; and from what I can tell, it is that certain knowledge, more than any monster or misfortune, that terrorizes pilgrims on their ships. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
yellow turban, lone scholar, dream church, torrent bed Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Lord Tucher, Ser Niccolo, Saint Katherine, Friar Felix, Father Guardian, Emelia Priuli, Mount Sinai, Holy Sepulchre, John Lazinus, Abbot Fuchs, Ursus Tucher, Peter Ber, Holy Land, Andromeda's Rocks, Saint Jerome, Jesus Christ, Saint Paul, Saint Peter's Cellars, Saint John's Eve, Elysian Fields, Red Sea, Constantine Kallistos, Archdeacon John, The Franciscan, Saint Augustine Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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