From the  1979 Viking edition of Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy by Rumer Godden: In this novel, Rumer Godden returns to the theme of the religious life, which has inspired some of her most successful novels including Black Narcissus and In This House of Brede.

She now moves to the world of the French Dominican Sisters of Béthanie, who work among the prostitutes, drug addicts, and vagrants of the great cities.

The heroine is Lise, an English girl who, after the liberation of Paris, falls into bad company and, after a period in one of Paris’s smartest brothels, becomes a successful madam — La Balafrée, the Scarred One. Read More→