In Praise of Disobedience: Clare of Assisi, A Novel

An author receives a mysterious e-mail begging her to tell the story of Clare of Assisi, the thirteenth-century Italian saint. At first annoyed by the request, the author begins to research Saint Clare and becomes captivated by her life. Inspired by Saint Francis, the wealthy young noblewoman renounced every last shred of her luxurious former lifestyle to joyfully embrace poverty. Yet in this abjection, she found a source of strength, starting her own religious order, becoming the first woman to pen a set of monastic guidelines, and gaining the love and respect of the townspeople and the nuns under her care.    As the author grows ever more fascinated by her subject, we too are transported into the strange and beautiful world of medieval Italy, witnessing the daily rituals of convent life. And at the center of that life is Saint Clare, a subversive and compelling figure full of contradictions: a physically disabled woman who travels widely in her imagination, unforgivingly harsh to herself yet infinitely generous to the women she supervises, a practitioner of self-abnegation who nevertheless knows her own worth. A visionary who liberated herself from the chains of materialism and patriarchy, Saint Clare becomes an inspirational figure for a new generation of readers.