Books about nuns

[JonasKahnwald]

I'm looking for books about nuns and convent life but looking on amazon there really isn't much. It keeps recommending the horror movie The Nun

I know its a bit of a niche subject but does anyone know of any books like this?I'm really interested in what brings a woman to become a nun and their life after this decision.

Thankyou

How strange I was just reading about nuns! Not a book but the convent of Poor Clares in Arundel, near where I live released an album of their music recently which was a big hit and I was reading about them and their order, the website has little biographies of the nuns and some history of their convent.

Some good recommendations here already, eg House of Brede and The Corner That Held Them

Sarah Dunant, Sacred Hearts is a historical novel set in 15th century (?) Italy in a convent

Robyn Cadwallader, The Anchoress, is about a 13th century nun

Nicola Griffith's Hild isn't actually about a nun but a historical novel exploring and imagining the earlier life of a woman before she became perhaps England's best known nun/Abbess/saint in 7th century England - St Hilda of Whitby. The author usually writes science fiction and this is a mixture of research into Hild, her society and worldbuilding type writing.

Alison Joseph has written a series about Sister Agnes which starts with a book which is also called Sacred Hearts. This is a contemporary series set (mostly) in London, and Sister Agnes is a sort of nun struggling with religious commitment but whose work takes her out into the community. It's also an amateur sleuth series. I wouldn't say it's a comic series as such but I think the author gives her character quite a sharp sense of humour and I love Sister Agnes and her very worldly non nun best mate Athena and good friend Father Julius. Most of the series was first published by Headline and out of print, but you can get them secondhand or on Kindle, and some of the later ones have been published by Allison & Busby (a few years ago now). |

I've just remembered one more - The Bell by Iris Murdoch. It's set in a community living close to a convent with interaction with the nuns.

Oh I love a good nun story myself!! You must try Kate O'Brien's Land of Spices.

Thanks these all sounds great. Will see if I can get any of them on audible as well because I like to listen whilst working.

Catalina by Somerset Maugham. I read it years ago and really enjoyed it at the time.

I enjoyed the Karen Armstrong one - she was very young. Very readable.

Non-fiction but what about Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel?

I reread In This House of Brede earlier this year, being old enough to remember Diana Rigg (iirc) in the TV adaptation in the 70s.

Virgin Territory by Sara Maitland is quite a different kettle of fish- bonkers and disturbing in equal measure.

And Then There Were Nuns by Jane Christmas. Non-fiction.

Five for sorrow, ten for joy also by Rumer Godden.

I was going to recommend In This House of Brede,one of my favourite books of all time
I've also got a book called The Choice,by Sister Kirsty,which is a non fiction book about the author's decision to enter a convent.I found it very interesting ( with the odd parallel to In This House of Brede!)
Don't know if it still available though,I have had it for so long...

So glad to see that someone recommended Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy! I love that book but think that it may be out of print, I think I bought my copy second hand online.

Agree with everyone who recommended In This House of Brede.

Rumer Godden really is fab.

Thanks all, a lot to choose from!

My late mother and I (both convent educated) enjoyed Changing Habits by Debbie Macomber, v easy read about three young nuns through the changes in the church in the 60s and 70s.

Not sure if it’s still available, but there was a fab Australian drama series called Brides of Christ, similar themes to Changing Habits.

Also Black Narcissus, Frost in May, Sacred Hearts etc etc as mentioned by others (maybe this could be my Mastermind subject 😂).

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B083P5QT51/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1&tag=mumsnetforu03-21

This was published earlier this year/late last year. It is great. Dr Mangion is a fab historian.

Obviously it is very expensive but hopefully a library might be able to help.

Scots school

Not nuns but this was an interesting documentary about Scottish men training to become priests in Italy.

@zigzag12

Oh I love a good nun story myself!! You must try Kate O'Brien's Land of Spices.

This is a wonderful novel, and a complicated but largely positive depiction of a powerful nun, and her order, as a sort of alternative family for a troubled child.

Has anyone suggested The Nun’s Story by Kathryn Hulme? Astonishing portrait (based on a real woman) of a woman entering a strict order in Belgium in the 1920s. The part that’s now difficult to stomach is the unproblematically patriotic and racist tone of the order’s mission in the Congo, but it is an astonishing novel.

Warning to anyone reading the admittedly brilliant In This House of Brede for the first time, there’s a scene relating to the loss of a child that is so awful I’ve never reread it.

"Warning to anyone reading the admittedly brilliant In This House of Brede for the first time, there’s a scene relating to the loss of a child that is so awful I’ve never reread it."

YY to this. Also trigger-warning for claustrophobia.

@HBGKC

"Warning to anyone reading the admittedly brilliant In This House of Brede for the first time, there’s a scene relating to the loss of a child that is so awful I’ve never reread it."

YY to this. Also trigger-warning for claustrophobia.

Absolutely to the claustrophobia, too. While I am a ninny about horror films, I am extremely tough-minded about novels in general, but although I must have read In This House of Brede fifteen years ago or more, I've never forgotten how appalling that part is.

I forgot to mention The Abbess of Crewe by Muriel Spark.

The Anchoress by Sarah Cadwallader
Not a nun, but close enough to be interesting. I enjoyed it.

A lot of Rumer Godden's books were published in Virago Modern Classics editions a few years ago, in paperback and Kindle, including both In This House of Brede and Frve for Sorrow.... The first one is on offer at 99p for Kindle at the moment.

Thank you for the kindle tip of In This House Of Brede.
I came on this thread to recommend I leap Over The Wall by Monica Baldwin. It’s one of my firm favourites.