A Recent Martyr

by Valerie Martin

Book Overview

The story of a deadly love triangle set in New Orleans. Emma Miller, married and the mother of a five-year-old daughter, is obsessed by her increasingly sadomasochistic relationship with Pascal... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679721584
• ISBN13: 9780679721581
• Release Date: August 1989
• Publisher: Vintage Books USA
• Length: 204 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Sad, beautiful, and disturbing....

Emma is obsessed with Pascal. Pascal is obsessed with Claire. Claire is obsessed with God. This strange and compelling love story is both erotic and spiritual and blurs the lines between the two at times. Emma is married and involved in an affair that is both destructive and irresistible. Then she meets Claire a young postulant in a convent whose religious fervor is such that the nuns have required her to live in the world for a year before taking her vows. Both Emma and Pascal become fascinated and then oddly obsessed with this strange young woman who loves God and does not suffer fools gladly. All the characters in this book are fascinating, rich and, in a strange way, bent on self-destruction --- much like the largest character in the story, the city of New Orleans. A mysterious plague ravages the city throughout the tale and adds to the tension and the final, heart-breaking chapters. This is an extraordinary story told by a masterful writer.