Lying Awake by Mark Salzman6/10/2023 ![]() In his third novel, Lying Awake, Mark Salzman breaks the primary rule of fiction by creating a protagonist who has virtually no external life. Lying Awake is a novel of remarkable empathy and imagination, and Mark Salzman's most provocative work to date. With extraordinary dexterity, the author of the best-selling Iron & Silk and The Soloist brings to life the mysterious world of the cloister, giving us a brilliantly realized portrait of women today drawn to the rigors of an ancient religious life, and of one woman's trial at the perilous intersection of faith and reason. ![]() This is the dilemma at the heart of Mark Salzman's spare, astonishing new novel. For if her spiritual gifts are symptoms of illness rather than grace, will a "cure" mean the end of her visions and a soul once again dry and searching? And there, she alone experiences visions of such dazzling power and insight that she is looked upon as a spiritual master.īut Sister John's visions are accompanied by powerful headaches, and when a doctor reveals that they may be dangerous, she faces a devastating choice. Sister John of the Cross has spent years there in the service of God. In a Carmelite monastery outside present-day Los Angeles, life goes on in a manner virtually un-changed for centuries. ![]()
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