More warrior than saint
JOAN
Katherine J. Chen
By ANNE STEVENS
Joan of Arc (Jeanne d’Arc) born 1412, died 1431. Most know her now as Saint Joan, creating an image of a holy woman, a person of deep and overriding conviction. In fact, Joan is a warrior, a woman whose priority became the restoration of France to the French and the defeat of the English. Her sainthood came some 500 years after her death when her warrior status may have softened with time, but the fact of her magnetic personality, her ability to lead and inspire, and her extraordinary courage could be explained as God showing himself in wondrous ways. It is impossible not to feel a sense of wonder when you read about Joan and her life, short as it was — a mere 19 years.
The book is fiction but took four years to write, largely due to the research undertaken. In 1412, France has been on the losing end of war with England for nearly 100 years. Heir to the French throne Charles VII has lost large swathes of France to the English, including Paris and Orleans.
We meet Joan at 10, living with her parents, her older sister, Catherine, and her brothers. Jacques, her father, is a loud, angry man. He beats Joan for a glance, a stumble, for being alive. A bully by disposition, he is increasingly violent.
Joan, though, is more than just a survivor; she is a victor and one who cares deeply for those she loves and those who value her strengths, of which she has many. Although Joan is not welcome in her own home, she is everywhere else in the village of Domremy. She lends a hand wherever it is needed, loading a cart, comforting a child, mending a wall.
Then the enemy attacks their village and tragedy falls close to home. Joan leaves Domremy, determined now to assist in the fight against the English, and falls in love with the smell of the horses, the weapons, the opportunities.
Now 16, she is taller, and stronger than most men, certainly more clear sighted and resolute. She watches, listens, and is adept, a quick study. Her aim is flawless with the bow and arrow, her touch with the horses winning, and she quickly emerges as a leader.
It is a breathtaking story. We all know Joan’s terrible fate, but the narrative leaves that unsaid; the power of it comes from the meticulously compelling telling of Joan’s valour, arrogance and certainty.
Anne Stevens KC is a Dunedin barrister
Natalia Garcia Freire
Ecuadorian writer Natalia Garcia Freire’s debut novel is a story of prosperity and ruins, death and its lingering. It was first published in 2019 in Spanish.
It tells of Lucas, who is returning home, drawn to a house with yellow walls and scabbed earth, an extensive and onceproud adobewalled manor now clothed in decrepitude. Only traces of his family remain.
The garden of flowers, his unhappy mother Josefina’s pride and purpose, has been devoured by cows. His father, head of the Torrente de Valses, is resting in the garden, buried behind the stone statues.
Lucas had been cast out by scurrilous strangers, sold into slavery as his mother was cast into a madhouse, left to her demons. Now Lucas feels the demons all around, where Catholicism casts long shadows: hovering in the cemeteryscented air and in his former home, an insidious evil. Like the Devil, the narrator has returned, a conscious voyeur, seeking out those imposters, Felisberto and Eloy, who stole his life.