In the Company of Angels

"In the Company of Angels" is a lush and beautiful novel. It is hypnotic and evocative, gorgeous and harrowing. It is certainly one of the very best books I've read in a long, long time.Marie Claire is a small French Jewish girl who lives with her grandmother in a Belgian village near the border of France. In fact, Tournai was once a part of France, itself, and its ties to Christianity are strong. As Kelby so lyrically writes, "Conquered by the French, it was thought more beautiful than Paris. Conquered by the English, it was the favored city of King Henry the Eighth. It was also a city of God, or so it was said." Certainly the people of Tournai see God. They see Him in their prayers and they see Him in the everyday stuff of life: The baker sees God in a cherry tart, the barber sees the Virgin's face on the floor of his shop and the butcher finds a small cross in the belly of a lamb. Yet, the people of Tournai are not happy; they feel that somehow, for some unknown reason, God has deserted their beautiful and loving village. Marie Claire's grandmother was known for her beautiful garden and cultivating flowers was her hobby. In fact, she names a rare black iris in Marie Claire's honor, because the little girl's hair is so very black. Marie Claire, like generations of the Durrieu family before her, lives a life that is as deeply rooted in the soil as are the beautiful flowers she is learning to tend. When World War II encroached upon their village, however, Marie Claire finds that her world is shattered.Two Belgian nuns, a Mother Superior and a young postulant, find Marie Claire hiding in the root cellar and they take her to their convent. There, in a town scented with the chocolates for which it is famous, the miracles of love that surrounded Marie Claire and saved her from capture by the Nazis, continue. Miracles that are always accompanied by the overpowering scent of roses.The two nuns, who are the only surviving Sisters of His Divine and Most Sacred Blood, are Sister Xavier and Sister Anne. These sisters have secrets of their own. Sister Xavier's parents are involved in genetic studies for the Third Reich. In addition, one of Sister Xavier's closest friends has suffered greatly at the hands of a commander in Hitler's army. And Sister Xavier does not plan to let these crimes go unpunished.Sister Anne is a woman dealing with ghosts. Far from being involved with Hitler, Sister Anne's parents were the victims of love. Her mother was, perhaps, a hysteric, and her father was a man too weak to protect his own daughter from the woman he loved. And then there is the street artist. Sister Anne must deal with his ghost as well.This is a book in which ghosts inhabit space side by side with the living. "The dead walk," Kelby writes, "the living rot away inch by inch...logic no longer applies." Logic certainly doesn't apply in this beautiful, but grim, story, so reminiscent of a fairy tale, and we are glad it doesn't. Lost in the my

This is one of the most amazing, uplifting books I've had the pleasure to read in the last few years. The book is extremely dreamlike and very cinematic -- in the hands of a sensitive director, this would make a memorable, extraordinary film.Marie Claire is a seven year-old Jewish girl, living in a small village in France, near the Belgian border. The time is World War II. She is an orphan -- she was forced to watch as the Nazis stood her parents in the village fountain and shot them, their blood flowing over and over through the fountain for all to see. Marie Claire is being raised by her grandmother, who breeds beautiful hybrid roses and irises. Her village is bombed, destroying almost everything, and killing everyone except this amazing child. She returns to the ruins of her grandmother's home and hides herself in the cellar, covering herself up to her neck with dirt, afraid of being discovered by the Nazis. After several days, she is found by two nuns from a convent just across the border in Belgium, who have come in search of survivors. They are amazed to find her alive -- and they are puzzled by many things about her, including the ever-present scent of roses. When they take her back with them to their convent, miracles begin to occur, centered around the young girl. At first the sisters think they are imagining things -- but as events transpire and unfold, they come to believe that 'the child saved is an angel of God', a prophecy told by the mother of one of the nuns.The author's style is a gently flowing stream of images. She uses an incredible economy of words to convey so much in this wonderful first novel. I read this book twice in succession last week, and I could find not a single sentence in excess -- a remarkable achievement, extremely effective and deeply moving.The story told here deals with some of the most horrific brutality that men have ever perpetrated on their fellow human beings -- but there is a beauty here as well, a gentle affirmation of faith and hope. This is an absolutely beautiful work of art -- tender and at the same time astonishingly powerful.

IN THE COMPANY OF ANGELS is a gorgeously written and moving meditation on the transcendant power of love and faith. The language is exquisite and reads like poetry. Comparisons to Anne Michaels' FUGITIVE PIECES come to mind, but I think Kelby is better and her work rings truer. Kelby marries Jewish and Catholic mysticism in a narrative steeped in magical realism. However, unlike the prose of Latin American magical realists such as Marquez and Isabel Allende, Kelby's prose often seems a little too ethereal and not quite grounded enough. Some readers may also find the book a touch too sentimental and melodramatic in places. Many highly charged scenes loaded with pyrotechnics and special effects (a nun setting fire to herself, a woman wrapping rose thorns around her breasts) pile up on top of each other, possibly overwhelming the reader and ultimately taking the power away from these scenes. If Anne appears to be weeping on nearly every page, then what power can these tears have on the reader? The German Commander (although a major player, he isn't given a name) appears as a stock character. However, this is a brave and risk-taking book and the author deserves credit for her vision and courage. The ending is absolutely sublime.

IN THE COMPANY OF ANGELS is a lovely, thought-provoking, and haunting story. I couldn't put it down, and found myself rereading passages that were brilliant and moving. I absolutely loved the scene with the Commander in the chocolate factory, the description of the truffles on the white paper lace--visually horrifying. The settings, the circumstances, the action of the characters are so telling, so real. Ms. Kelby has done a beautiful job weaving this magical story together. Tying up all the loose ends, staying true to the theme, describing the horrors of the holocaust in a subtle, yet compelling manner, all the way to the more than satisfying conclusion. I look forward to reading her next novel.

"In times of war, the line between 'what is' and 'what is no longer' becomes confused," says the omniscient and poetic narrator of the future award winning first novel of N. M. Kelby. The smell and texture of fine chocolate, the oddity of black irises, the stench of smoke, the roar of war planes convey a heady realism, but something much stronger pulls us into this world of the bell-laden city of Tournai, Belgium during the horrible years toward the end of the war. "In times of war, logic no longer applies." What does apply and miraculously survive are various human loves (nuns for God and for each other; a man and a woman who should be bitter enemies; a community for its few survivors) and the mysterious ways of God (light shining from the palms of a beautiful traumatized child, perhaps an angel; doves fluttering from napkins; an elderly German nun, dead, meeting her parents in their field; a beautiful red headed woman who, angelic herself for all her rich corporality and love of chocolate, claims to have "saved an angel of God," a Jewish child ("How can she be an angel of God?". . ."That is the question you must ask yourself," she answers). And that is but one question the reader must ask too. The slim, gripping novel begs us: "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."