Description
Book SynopsisIn 1851 Bishop Latour and his friend Father Valliant are despatched to New Mexico to reawaken its slumbering Catholicism. Moving along the endless prairies, Latour spreads his faith the only way he knows - gently, although he must contend with the unforgiving landscape, derelict and sometimes openly rebellious priests, and his own loneliness. Over nearly forty years, they leave converts and enemies, crosses and occasionally ecstasy in their wake. But it takes a death for them to make their mark on the landscape forever ...
Trade ReviewA
powerful piece of writing, rich with the essence of a poor but beautiful country and a simple yet dignified people * Sunday Times *
A tremendous, ranging story, economical and distilled as poetry -- Jane Gardam
Quite simply
a masterpiece . . . I am completely bowled over by it; by the power of its writing, by the vividness of its scene painting and by the stories it tells . . . This is a book which I go on rereading -- A. N. Wilson * Daily Telegraph *
Its whole effect works slowly and mysteriously . . . a
major, and
rare,
artistic achievement -- A. S. Byatt
