The anchoress / Robyn Cadwallader.

Tākupu nā Heather

This is a well-researched book about a way of life long forgotten. It is fascinating in its detail, becoming more engrossing the further you read. The heroine and narrator is a 17-year-old girl living in an English village in 1255, locked in the room where she is to remain for the rest of her life. She is an anchoress, a holy woman maintained by the lord of the manor in a small stone hermitage attached to the village church, where she spends her days and nights in prayer for her community. . She has two servants, who bring their own stories and those of the village as well as food and embroidery to pass the time between prayers. Priests come to hear her confession once a week, although a curtain veils her from the gaze of men. The book is not about exciting events but absorbing in its exploration of a world so different from our own.