Ordinary Devotion

Braided medieval and modern stories of an anchoress, her handmaiden, and the adjunct professor searching for themacross centuries as they each navigate ambition, confinement, and the patriarchy.The modern and medieval stories spiral in and out of each other, intricate and vivid as the letters of illuminated manuscripts, connected by the mysteries of paradox: confinement and freedom, loss and fulfillment.Elizabeth Cunningham, My Life as a Prayerand The Maeve ChroniclesHolt-Browning is adept at honing in on the passion for life, nature, and language that can sustain a person through the hardest times.Nerissa Nields,Plastic Angeland All Together Singing in the KitchenTwelve-year-old Elinor is enclosed with an anchoress, Lady Adela, in a cell at Wenlock Abbey, 14thcentury England. Centuries later, an adjunct professor of medieval studies discovers Elinors long-lost book of hours on a research trip to England. Holt-Browningexplores womens timeless struggle for personal agency as her unforgettable characters discover the burdens and rewards of faith and devotion. A must-read for fans of Julian of Norwich.