Download The Anchoress AudioBook Free
England, 1255. What could drive a woman on the cusp of womanhood to lock herself away from the world permanently? Sarah is merely 17 when she chooses to become an anchoress, a holy girl shut away in a cell that actions only seven by nine paces, at the side of the village chapel. Fleeing the grief of losing a much-loved sister in childbirth as well as pressure to marry the local lord's kid, she determines to renounce the planet - with all its potential issues, wishes, and temptations - and commit herself to a life of prayer. Nonetheless it soon becomes clear that the dense, unforgiving surfaces of Sarah's cell cannot protect her as well as she had thought. With the exterior world clamoring to get in and the intensity of her isolation driving her toward drastic measures, even madness, her body and heart are still in grave threat. When she begins hearing the tone of the previous anchoress whispering to her from the surfaces, Sarah detects herself questioning what she thought she knew about the anchor-hold and about the town itself. Using the lyricism of Nicola Griffith's Hild and the vibrant historical environment of Hannah Kent's Burial Rites, Robyn Cadwallader's powerful debut novel instructs an absorbing account of faith, desire, shame, dread, and the very human need for connection and touch. Compelling, evocative, and haunting, The Anchoress is both silently heartbreaking and thrillingly unpredictable.
