Five for Sorrow Ten for Joy: A Virago Modern Classic

By the bestselling author of Black Narcissus and The River

‘One of our best and most captivating novelists’ Philip Hensher

The Sisters of Bethanie, a French order of Dominican nuns, dedicate themselves to caring for the outcasts of society - criminals, prostitutes and drug addicts. Lise, an English girl who after the liberation of Paris was employed in one of the city’s smartest brothels and rose to become a successful madame, finds herself joining the Sisters. Master storyteller Rumer Godden weaves a deeply moving tale of Lise’s prison sentence, her conversion and the agonising work among women whose traumatic experiences often outstrip even her own.

‘[Godden’s] distinctive, poised and unsentimental books have never lost a shred of their almost hypnotic appeal’ Rosie Thomas, Guardian