The Book of Margery Kempe

by Mark Schroeder

Book Overview

"The Book of Margery Kempe" is a semi-finalist in the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest.Janie Radcliffe is a brilliant yet introverted editor of seventeenth-century poetry and literature. Given to hearing voices from the past, and woefully out of step with her own time, she lives a cloistered, humdrum existence, until her world suddenly changes when her impresario boss, London publisher Bill Avery, asks her to take a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Her assignment is to walk in the footsteps of Margery Kempe, the author of the first autobiography in English, and the most well-known, and least understood, Christian mystic in all of Western literature.The Book of Margery Kempe is a moving portrait of pilgrimage, of how one must pass through the dark night of the soul and confront the demons of the past in order to acquire self-knowledge. Modeling her behavior after that of Margery and the "mystical heroines of the past," Janie endures fasting, mortification, and other hardships until, finally, she emerges from her pilgrimage on a foreign shore, a triumphant and translucent woman ready to shape her own destiny.Combining the dramatic intensity of Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves with the lyrical prose of Colum Mccann's Zoli, The Book of Margery Kempe questions the belief that God and self are easily known. Janie's story is one that depicts the trials and tribulations demanded of those who would seek to know the "flame within." In so doing, the work asks readers how much they are willing to give up to do the same.The Publishers Weekly Review of "The Book of Margery Kempe."This first-rate manuscript incorporates contemporary fiction and historical nonfiction to tell a tale of spiritual transformation and the search for self. It utilizes "The Book of Margery Kempe" -- the first autobiography written in English, circa 1437, which recounts the life of medieval mystic and pilgrim Margery Kempe -- as the catalyst that spurs its modern-day and medieval characters to action. And it switches from narrator to narrator and from 1431 to 2007. The story begins when London publisher Bill Avery acquires the rights to distribute "The Book of Margery Kempe," and asks Janie Radcliffe, Avery Publishing's British literature specialist, to write the book's Introduction. Janie delves into her research and discovers that Margery dictated her story to two scribes -- one of whom is Arthur Chartis, a character who speaks eloquently of his consequential encounters with Marjorie and his own desire to confer with the Lord. This intriguing and impressive manuscript names the second scribe early, defying centuries-old assumptions about the scribe's possible identity. Janie becomes increasingly transfixed by Margery's mysticism. Could Margery hear God's voice, as she claimed? Or was she a heretic who flouted ecclesiastical authority? To generate publicity for the book's release Ambrose Wells, Avery's advertising guru, devises a marketing stunt: a reenactment of Margery's pilgrimage from England to Jerusalem with Janie "following in Margery's footsteps" and contributing missives along her journey to a London newspaper. What begins as a trite tactic to sell books morphs into Janie's veritable God quest -- the outcome of which solidifies Janie's persona and stupefies Bill, Ambrose, and Janie's mother. Keen insight, vivid characters, and solid storytelling make this one to watch.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0615594956
• ISBN13: 9780615594958
• Release Date: February 2012
• Publisher: The Book of Margery Kempe
• Length: 534 Pages
• Weight: 1.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 1.3" x 5.5"