Lambs of God - Marele Day

Shortlisted, International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 1998Sister Iphigenia looked up, 'A man', she said, bringing her chopper down on the lamb's leg. 'A priest.'Vegetation grows out of the mouths of stone angels, and sheep wander through the chapel. For Iphigenia, Margarita and Carla the rhythm of nature and the rituals of the Church have joined to make an encompassing whole, a garment as fitting for their lives as their homespun clothes. They pray, they do their daily tasks. At the nightly knitting circle they tell stories, stitching into their work the bright colours of fairy tale and myth. Brambles enclose the monastery and the three nuns have forgotten the world outside. Until a worldly young priest forges his way in. Brisk and businesslike, Father Ignatius plans to transform the nuns' very existence. Or is it the man who will be transformed? In seeking to protect the life they so cherish the nuns find themselves capable of drawing on unimagined depths of resourcefulness. Richly allusive, vividly imagiend, pungently erotic and often wildly funny, Lambs Of God draws on beliefs and fears deep within us and weaves them into a tapestry of dazzling originality.