Five for Sorrow Ten for Joy: A Virago Modern Classic: Virago Modern Classics

[Godden's] distinctive, poised and unsentimental books have never lost a shred of their almost hypnotic appeal
One of our best and most captivating novelists
[Godden has] a genius for storytelling
Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy is about growth, choice, struggle, and the freedom of the soul that transcends the license of the body. It is about finding sin where we least expect it
Godden reaffirms her own faith in the convent joys: the beloved demands of the religious calendar; the simplicity and hard work of the day-to-day regimens
All [Godden's novels] have one important thing in common: They are beautifully and simply wrought by a woman of depth and sensitivity
As she moved away towards the chapel a puff of wind caught her veil, blowing it back, and they saw she had a scar on her left cheek . . .

The Sisters of Béthanie, a French order of Dominican nuns, dedicate themselves to caring for those on the margins of society. But for Soeur Marie Lise, the struggles of these outcast women are entwined with her own troubled past. Once she was Elizabeth Fanshawe, a spirited English girl in postwar Paris, who found herself employed at one of the city's smartest brothels and rose to become the notorious and successful madam known as La Balafrée - the Scarred One.

Through Lise's vivid experience of prison, conversion and redemption, Rumer Godden weaves a deeply moving and clear-sighted tale of darkness and hope. But even as Lise makes peace with her past, its legacy is threatening to strike at the heart of the convent itself.

'One of our best and most captivating novelists' PHILIP HENSHER
'[Godden's] distinctive, poised and unsentimental books have never lost a shred of their almost hypnotic appeal' ROSIE THOMAS
'A dramatic story of manipulation, violence, double-dealing and redemption' FINANCIAL TIMES