'One of the great British novels of the twentieth century: a narrative of extraordinary reach, power and beauty' Sarah Waters

The nuns who enter a medieval Norfolk convent are told to renounce the world, but the world still finds ways to trouble them, whether it is through fire, floods, pestilence, a collapsing spire, jealous rivalries, a priest with a secret or a plague of caterpillars. As we follow their daily lives over three centuries, this masterpiece of historical fiction re-creates a world run by women.

'As an act of imagined history this novel has few rivals. Also, as it happens, a work of high, frequent comedy' George Steiner, The Times Literary Supplement

'Spellbinding . . . One starts rereading as soon as one has reached the last page' Sunday Times

'Magnificent' Philip Hensher, Daily Telegraph

"A classic, whose resonance deepens inside the reader in proportion to its austere, luminous discretion. Also, as it happens, a work of high, frequent comedy. As an act of imagined history this novel has few rivals" - The Times Literary Supplement

"A spellbinding piece of historical fiction-spare, luminous. . . . One starts rereading as soon as one has reached the last page" - The Sunday Times

"A magnificent recreation of the life of a medieval convent" - The Daily Telegraph