Lady at the Window: The Lost Journal of Julian of Norwich: A Novella (Paraclete Fiction)

Praise for Lady at the Window: The Lost Journal of Julian of Norwich: A Novella (Paraclete Fiction)

"Waldron (Thomas Merton in Search of His Soul) imagines the lost journal of 14th-century mystic Julian of Norwich in this stirring novella. Julian lived sequestered in her later years as a hermit in the English city of Norwich, and her primary interactions were with her confessor, her servant, and the people who came to her for spiritual direction and wisdom. Julian doles out hopeful advice and questions the traditional Catholic practice of priestly confessions. Composed in secret—as women were forbidden from writing in English at the time—her journal entries display an unabashed defiance of norms, and, in scriptural readings, Julian likens Jesus as a mother rather than a son or father. Covering the last Holy Week before Julian’s death, the final entries look back on a life lived amid plagues, war, and despair. Despite the darkness of days, Julian surmises that, with peace and trust in God, “all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” Christian readers will enjoy Waldron’s convincing, reflective tale." —Publishers Weekly

“A deeply sympathetic portrait of this medieval mystic, a wife and mother and anchoress who came to reimagine God as a merciful, nurturing and especially mothering presence. In spite of the Black Plague and endless wars and suffering, a world very much really like what we have experienced in our own time, Waldron takes us through Julian’s unsettling meditations during the dark hours of Holy Week, ending with an eastering vision in which we too might find comfort in what she saw: that God is there even in the darkness, and that ‘All shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.’” —Paul Mariani, professor, poet, and literary biographer

"In his stunning and convincing imitation of Julian of Norwich's language and thought, Robert Waldron has given us an amazing feat of the imagination that is as inspiring and insightful as Julian's own journal of 'shewings." —Ron Hansen, author of Mariette in Ecstasy

"Set aside the religious construct should it bother you. The markings of religion merely provide the framework. Within its containment is a compelling story of the mystic Julian of Norwich, a woman of great spiritual depth, compassion and service, living within what acceptable confines were available to her gender and social status in the Middle Ages of Europe. Placed within the week prior to her death, we are offered glimpses of her life over time. The long ago visions that directed Julian’s sensibilities are made real. So is the acute longing that comes with spiritual dryness—when the felt presence of ‘Mother’ God or ‘Mother’ Jesus did not come. Just as present are the mundane details of the solitary existence within her anchorite’s cell, in which she was voluntarily sealed for twenty or more years until her death. Today Julian might be considered an empath. Possessing that inherent capability, she took on the suffering and joys of those who came to her window for counsel. Her guidance often flew in the face of Church teachings. Julian was a quiet subversive of exceptional courage living in plain sight, right under the nose of the Catholic Church. She knew the likely outcome had she not kept her writings hidden, so she was told by her invisible guide. We now know Julian of Norwich, whose true name remains lost, as the first female author of any book written in English. Her writings were secreted and only began to emerge to any real degree in the early 1900s, nearly 500 years after her death.Robert Waldron’s understated way of writing made the novella all the more inspiring and believable. Gleaned from Julian’s own writings, Lady at the Window can be  seen as a primer for seekers of spiritual alignment, strangely as relevant to our chaotic, tragic times as the plague years she lived through." —Carla Woody, author of Portals to the Vision Serpent and Standing Stark