{"product_id":"an-infinity-of-little-hours-five-young-men-and-their-trial-of-faith-in-the-western-worlds-most-austere-monastic-order-9781586484323","title":"An Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1960, five young men arrived at the imposing gates of Parkminster, the largest centre of the most rigorous and ascetic monastic order in the Western world: the Carthusians. This is the story of their five-year journey into a society virtually unchanged in its behaviour and lifestyle since its foundation in 1084.  An Infinity of Little Hours  is a uniquely intimate portrait of the customs and practices of a monastic order almost entirely unknown until now. It is also a drama of the men's struggle as they avoid the 1960s,the decade of hedonism, music, fashion, and amorality,and enter an entirely different era and a spiritual world of their own making. After five years each must face a choice: to make \"solemn profession\" and never leave Parkminster or to turn his back on his life's ambition to find God in solitude. A remarkable investigative work, the book combines first-hand testimony with unique source material to describe the Carthusian life. And in the final chapter, which recounts a reunion forty years after the events described elsewhere in the book, Nancy Klein Maguire reveals which of the five succeeded in their quest, and which did not.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Maguire has produced a vivid, gripping and deeply touching picture of a world that is now lost. For an outsider to enter such a closed society and to capture its essence is an astonishing achievement: this is a work of history, but it has all the best qualities of a psychological novel.\" Diarmiud MacCullogh \"It is fascinating to enter, if only for a few hours, into this way of life, where extreme devotion forms at last a bit of a bulwark against humanity's digressions.\" Los Angeles Times\"","brand":"PublicAffairs,U.S.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51020087820631,"sku":"9781586484323","price":16.14,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781586484323.jpg?v=1750782358","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/an-infinity-of-little-hours-five-young-men-and-their-trial-of-faith-in-the-western-worlds-most-austere-monastic-order-9781586484323","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}